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J.L.LORD 


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AND    THE 


THEIR  PLACE  IN  INSPIRED  PROPHECY. 
BY  JOSEPH  L.  LORD,  M.  A., 

OF   THE   BOSTON   BAK, 

Author  of  "  Briefs  on  Prophetic  Themes,"  etc. 


[dub,  6  vufi<pio<;  ep^erat. — Matt,  xxv,  6. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
CHARLES     W.     QUICK. 

FOR   SALE   AT 

THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  BOOK  STORE.  1224  CHESTNUT  STREET, 

ALSO    BY 

E.  P.  DUTTON  &  CO,,  135  WASHINGTON  STREET,  BOSTON, 

AND 

762  BROADWAY,   NEW  YORK. 
18G8. 


PHILADELPHIA  \ 
J.   MOORE  &    SONS,  PRINTERS. 


INTRODUCTORY    NOTE. 


The  treatise  on  the  subject  indicated  by  the  title-page, 
and  contained  in  the  following  pages,  was  first  published 
in  the  supplementary  columns  of  The  Episcopalian. 
The  Editor  of  that  journal  begs  leave  to  make  mention 
of  the  wide-spread  interest  which  its  perusal  has  caused, 
and  to  testify  to  the  many  and  high  commendations  which 
have  reached  him  from  Bible  students  well  qualified  to 
judge  of  the  merits  of  such  a  work.  A  just  enumeration 
of  those  merits  must  include  the  literary  qualities  of  the 
essay.  The  clearness  of  expression,  the  strength  and 
purity  of  language  and  the  nervousness  of  style  will  not 
fail  to  attract  and  please  all  persons  of  cultivated  and 
refined  taste. 

The  modest  and  unpretending  volume  is  offered  as  a 
contribution  to  the  study  of  the  prophecies  relating  to 
"  the  ancient  people,"  now  daily  rising  into  importance, 
and  drawing  to  themselves  such  earnest  thought  and 
close  attention. 

The  main  feature  of  the  treatise  will  not  fail  to  strike 
the  mind  of  the  reader,  and  he  will  be  pleased  to  find 
Scripture  interpreting  itself,  and  all  the  rays  of  distinct 
prophetic  instructions,  relating  to  the  judicial  blindness 
of  Israel,  united  and  condensed  in  the  focal  point  assigned 
to  our  Lord's  unexplained  parables.  The  collocation  of 
the  words  of  Him  who  spake  as  never  man  spake,  de- 
livered by  His  Own  mouth,  with  those  words,  also  His 
Own,  but  uttered  by  the  prophets  under  the  inspiration 
of  His  Spirit,  must  be  highly  suggestive ;  while  the 
clearness,  precision  and  force  of  the  logical  sequence 
between  the  passages  of  Scripture  cited,  and   the  infer- 


IV.  INTRODUCTORY    NOTE. 

ences  of  fact  derived  therefrom,  must  strongly  impress 
the  mind  of  the  reader,  even  if  he  should  not  feel  pre- 
pared, without  further  inquiry  (which  the  author  himself 
earnestly  solicits),  to  give  a  ready  assent  to  all  the  con- 
clusions of  the  author,  in  the  form  and  related  order  in 
which  they  are  set  forth  in  the  summing-up  at  the  close 
of  his  discussion. 

His  readers  will  find  they  have  entered  a  different 
atmosphere  when  they  turn  from  the  strife  of  contro- 
versy to  peruse  these  pages.  The  position  of  the  thinker 
seems  to  us  to  be  like  that  of  the  Lord's  people  in  the 
days  of  Malachi ;  "  They  that  feared  the  Lord  spake 
often  one  to  another:  and  the  Lord  hearkened  and 
heard  it." 

It  will  be  discovered  by  the  reader  that  the  author  has 
not  entered  the  mazes  of  chronology,  nor  attempted  to 
assign  definite  dates  to  the  fulfilment  of  prophecies. 
Such  definite  epochs  doubtless  exist  in  the  divine  coun- 
sels, and  many  of  them  are  found  stated  with  precision 
and  others  symbolically  and  metaphorically  in  various 
parts  of  the  Scriptures.  The  great  difficulty  is  to  find 
the  key  to  those  clearly-defined  epochs,  and  to  settle  con- 
clusively the  beginning  or  ending  of  any  one. 

It  is  suggested,  at  this  point,  that  the  hour  when  the 
sentence  of  judicial  blindness  was  pronounced  by  Isaiah, 
or  the  time  when  it  began  to  be  executed,  was  the  be- 
ginning of  that  epoch  terminating  with  the  close  of  the 
times  of  the  Gentiles,  and  corresponding  with  the  "  seven 
times "  mentioned  by  Moses  (Levit.  xxvi,  18-24). 
Can  either  period  be  ascertained  ? 

The  volume  is  now  committed  to  the  candid  and 
prayerful  attention  of  the  reader,  with  the  assured  belief 
that  the  Divine  blessing  will  attend  its  perusal. 

C.  W.  Q. 


PREFACE. 


For  twenty-six  hundred  years,  the  sentence  of  judicial 
blindness  has  hung,  like  a  funeral  pall,  over  the  Jewish 
mind,  covering  the  whole  earth,  wherever  Israel  has 
been  scattered  (and  where  has  Israel  not  been  scattered  ?) 
with  its  thick  and  ample  folds. 

Ever  after  this  sentence  was  pronounced  by  the  pro- 
phet Isaiah,  all  the  prophecies,  both  judicial  and  millen- 
nial, of  the  Old  Testament,  and  all  the  prophecies  of  our 
Saviour  in  the  New  Testament,  so  far  as  Israel  is  con- 
cerned, either  presuppose,  or  are  directly  based  upon, 
the  great  fact  of  her  judicial  blindness,  until  the  close  of 
her  present  judicial  dispensation. 

Of  no  class  of  prophecies  can  this  be  said  with  greater 
truth,  than  of  those  contained  in  the  public  and  unex- 
plained parables  of  our  Lord. 

The  connection  of  these  parables  with  the  judicial 
blindness  of  Israel — which  blindness  is  the  reason  given 
by  our  Saviour  to  His  disciples,  why  He  spake  to  the 
Jewish  multitudes  in  parables — does  not  seem  to  us  to 
have  received  that  degree  of  attention  from  writers  on 
the  parables,  which  its  prophetic  importance  properly 
demands. 

Heuce  these  pages,  revised  from  the  columns  of  The 
Episcopalian:  the  object  of  which  has  been  to  supply 
in  some  measure,  though  very  briefly  and  imperfectly, 
and  without  any  attempt  at  elaborate  discussion,  any 
deficiency  which  may  have  been  felt  by  other  minds  in 


VI.  PREFACE. 

the  same  regard  ;  our  object  being  rather  to  suggest 
and  elicit,  and  not  by  any  means  to  satisfy  or  exhaust 
inquiry. 

As  is  becoming  in  a  layman,  we  have  affected  not  the 
traditions  of  the  fathers,  or  the  learning,  or  the  methods 
of  the  schools  ;  but,  without  disrespect  thereto,  have 
sought  only  for  what  have  appeared  to  us  to  be  the  plain 
teachings  of  the  Word  and  providence  of  God  on  the 
subject,  which,  as  one  in  a  series,  we  have  chosen  for 
our  present  theme,  in  the  full  persuasion,  if  these  teach- 
ings are  what  we  have  represented  them  to  be,  that  they 
were  never  of  greater  practical  consequence  to  all  con- 
cerned, to  Jews  and  Gentiles  both,  than  at  the  present 
day. 

May  the  God  of  Israel  hearken  and  hear,  and  own 
and  bless  the  words  which  we  have  written. 

Joseph  L.  Lord. 

Saxonville,  Mass.,  June,  18G8. 


|sract'^    jwltrial     alindnm. 


ISRAEL'S  JUDICIAL  BLINDNESS. 


"Therefore  speak  I  unto  them  in  parables  ;  because  see- 
ing they  see  not,  and  hearing  they  hear  not,  neither  do  they 
understand.  And  in  them  is  fulfilled  the  prophecy  of 
Esaias,  which  saith,  By  hearing  ye  shall  hear,  and  shall  not 
understand  ;  and  seeing,  ye  shall  see  and  shall  not  per- 
ceive: for  this  people's  heart  is  waxed  gross,  and  their  ears 
are  dull  of  hearing,  and  their  eyes  they  have  closed  ;  lest  at 
any  time  they  should  see  with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with 
their  ears,  and  should  understand  with  their  heart,  and 
should  be  converted,  and  I  should  heal  them"  (Matt,  xiii, 
13-15). 

The  parables  of  the  New  Testament  are  confined 
to  the  personal  teachings  of  our  Saviour. 

According  to  the  enumeration  of  Trench  they  are 
thirty  in  number ;  according  to  Greswell  twenty- 
seven  only. 

In  the  present  discussion  we  shall  adopt  the  enu- 
meration of  Mr.  Greswell,  though  their  precise  num- 
ber is  not  of  consequence  to  our  purpose. 

We  do  not  propose  to  discuss  the  nature  of  para- 
bles in  general,  or  as  a  distinct  form  of  our  Saviour's 
instructions ;  nor  do  we  propose  to  discuss  any 
general  or  particular  classification  or  feature  of 
them,  or  any  distinction  existing  between  them, 
except  that  only  which  is  denoted  by  our  title 
and  by  the  plain  letter  of  the  record ;  namely, 
that  some  of  them  were  explained  by  our  Saviour 
when  He  uttered  them,  and  that  others  were  left 
wholly   unexplained  by   Him,   whatever   may   have 


10  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

been  recorded  in  connection  therewith  by  the  inspired 
historians  who  relate  them.  This,  it  will  be  observed, 
is  not  a  speculative  distinction,  but  a  difference  of 
fact  only. 

It  is  well  to  observe,  however,  that  the  explained 
parables  form  integral  parts  of  continuous  discourses 
of  our  Saviour,  not  in  the  least  interrupting,  but 
rather  rendering  more  complete,  the  flowing  narrative; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  unexplained  parables 
are  introduced  abruptly,  and  break  in  upon  the  con- 
nected order  of  the  sacred  narrative,  without  any 
assigned  cause  for  the  obvious  interruption,  or  any 
clue  afforded  by  any  accompanying  note  or  comment 
of  our  Saviour,  by  which  His  hearers  might,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  explained  parables,  readily  interpret  their 
hidden  meaning  and  design. 

It  will,  we  think,  appear,  as  we  proceed  with  our 
discussion,  that  the  unexplained  parables  are  strictly 
prophetic  and  historical  in  their  office  and  character; 
relating  not,  like  the  explained  parables,  to  timely 
precepts,  or  present  duties  and  obligations,  but  to 
future  events  only;  not  to  what,  in  point  of  moral 
duty,  a  particular  course  of  conduct  should  be,  but 
to  what,  in  point  of  fact,  the  inevitable  results  of  a 
given  course  of  moral  conduct  will  be;  and  that,  not 
so  much  in  reference  to  individuals,  as  to  mankind, 
or  some  one  or  more  of  the  great  Scriptural  divisions 
of  mankind  at  large. 

It  will,  we  think,  not  only  appear  that  the  unex- 
plained parables  are  thus  strictly  prophetic  in  their 
office  and  character,  but  that,  equally  with  other  dis- 
tinct classes  of  prophecy,  they  have  their  own  pecu- 
liar place  and  sphere  among  the  prophetic  oracles  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  form  a  distinct  class  by 
themselves;  looking,  however,  not  less  than  other 
prophecy,  to  a  certain  moral  state  of  things,  and  to 
a  certain  moral  condition  of  life  and  character  in 
those  to  whom  they  are  addressed,  and  at  the  time 
they  are  addressed,  for  the  full  vindication  of  the 
wisdom  of  their  use;   but  to  the  course  of  future 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  11 

events  onl}r,  for  the  full  and  final  unfolding  and 
clearing  up  of  their  hidden  meaning  and  design. 

Of  the  unexplained  parables,  however,  we  propose 
to  discuss  those  only  which  were  intended  for  the 
Jewish  nation  at  large,  and  were  therefore  addressed 
either  to  public  and  mixed  assemblies  of  the  Jews,  or 
to  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  as  the  more  notable 
representatives  of  the  nation,  and  the  constant  and 
inveterate  enemies  and  persecutors  of  our  Saviour. 

It  is  not  as  yet  of  account  to  our  general  theme, 
that  some  of  the  public  and  unexplained  parables 
were,  after  their  delivery,  privately  explained  b}'  our 
Saviour,  in  respect  to  their  general  scope  and  signifi- 
cation, to  His  disciples.  That  they  were  thus  pri- 
vately explained, though  of  great  account  undoubtedly 
to  the  disciples  at  the  time,  as  it  will  be  to  us  when 
we  come  to  their  exposition,  was  of  no  account  to 
those  to  whom  they  were  especially  addressed,  and 
helped  not  to  enlighten  their  blinded  moral  under- 
standing, either  as  to  their  prophetic  character,  or  as 
to  the  reason  (privately  explained  to  the  disciples) 
why  our  Saviour  made  use  of  this  particular  form  of 
prophecy  so  largely  to  the  exclusion  of  all  other 
forms,  when,  in  the  middle  of  the  second  year  of  His 
ministry,  He  first  began  to  speak  to  the  nation  in 
parables. 

The  seven  explained,  or  doctrinal  and  ethical  para- 
bles, with  the  moral  taught  b}T  each,  are  as  follows : 
1.  The  king  who  took  account  of  his  debtors;  or, 
the  duty  of  forgiveness.  2.  The  good  Samaritan  ; 
or,  the  true  nature  of  love  to  our  neighbor.  3.  The 
rich  fool ;  or,  the  folly  of  putting  our  trust  in  earthly 
riches.  4.  The  unjust  steward;  or,  our  accounta- 
bilit}T  to  God  for  the  use  of  earthly  riches.  5.  The 
rich  man  and  Lazarus  ;  or,  the  fatal  folly  of  pervert- 
ing earthly  riches  to  the  good  things  of  this  life,  its 
self-indulgent  pleasures  and  luxuries,  its  costly  and 
voluptuous  living.  G.  The  importunate  widow  ;  or, 
the  duty  of  perseverance  and  importunity  in  prayer. 
1.  The  Pharisee  and  publican;  or,  the  supreme  folly 


12  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

of  self-righteousness ;  of  self-complacency  and  self- 
ostentation  in  respect  to  onr  religious  character  and 
attainments. 

The  precise  prophetic  and  historic  import  of  the 
unexplained  parables,  on  the  other  hand,  (we  do  not 
need,  at  present,  to  make  an}^  distinction  between 
those  wiiich  were  addressed  to  the  Jewish  public  and 
those  which  were  addressed  to  the  disciples  in  pri- 
vate) is  not  susceptible  of  being  either  so  briefly 
denoted,  or  so  readily  determined,  but  mast  await 
their  separate  exposition.     They  are  as  follows  : — 

1.  The-  sower  and  his  seed  (Matt,  xiii,  1-9 ;  Mark 
iv,  1-9  ;  Luke  viii,  4-8). 

2.  The  tares  of  the  field  (Matt,  xiii,  24-30). 

3.  The  seed  growing  secretly  (Mark  iv,  26-29). 

4.  The  grain  of  mustard-seed  (Matt,  xiii,  31,  32 ; 
Mark  iv,  30-32;  Luke  xiii,  18,  19). 

5.  The  leaven  (Matt,  xiii,  33  ;  Luke  xiii,  20,  21). 

6.  The  hidden  treasure  (Matt,  xiii,  44). 

7.  The  pearl  (Matt,  xiii,  45,  46). 

8.  The  draw-net  cast  into  the  sea  (Matt,  xiii, 
47,  48). 

9.  The  good  shepherd  (John  x,  1-18). 

10,11.  The  servants  left  in  wrait  for  their  lord ;  and 
the  servant  left  instead  of  his  lord  (Luke  xii,  22-48). 

12.  The  barren  fig-tree  (Luke  xiii,  1-9). 

13.  The  great  supper  (Luke  xiv,  15-24). 

14.  The  prodigal  son  (Luke  xv,  11-32). 

15.  The  laborers  in  the  vineyard  (Matt,  xx,  1-16). 

16.  The  ten  pieces  of  money,  or  the  pounds  (Luke 
xix,  11-27). 

17.  The  wicked  husbandmen  (Matt,  xxi,  33-44; 
Mark  xii,  1-11 ;  Luke  xx,  9-18). 

18.  The  marriage  of  the  king's  son,  or  the  wedding 
garment  (Matt,  xxii,  1-14). 

19.  20.  The  ten  virgins;  and  the  talents  (Matt. 
xxv,  1-30). 

The  parables  in  general,  without  reference  to  any 
particular  classification  of  them,  have  often  been 
compared  to  apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver,  of 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  13 

which  the  other  teachings  of  our  Saviour  form  the 
silver  setting.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  now  of  conse- 
quence only  to  call  the  attention  of  our  readers  to 
the  high  and  absolute  importance  of  that  portion  of 
the  parables,  and  that  strictly  in  reference  to  their 
prophetic  office  and  character,  which  is  denoted  by  our 
title. 

We  do  not  notice  airv  difference,  and  we  are  not 
aware  that  any  exists,  between  the  parables  as  we 
have  thus  distinguished  them,  in  respect  to  their  out- 
ward form  and  structure,  or  in  respect  to  what  would, 
at  first  sight,  appear  to  be  their  obvious  and  prima 
facie  signification.  It  now  concerns  us  to  notice 
only  that  some  of  them  are  briefly  and  pointedly 
explained  by  our  Saviour,  and  that  others  are  left  by 
Him,  on  account  of  the  judicial  blindness  of  His 
hearers,  wholly  unexplained. 

We  notice,  moreover,  that  those  which  are  ex- 
plained are  uniformly  employed  by  our  Saviour  for 
the  purpose  of  preceptive  or  didactic  instruction, 
as  familiar  practical  examples,  or  cases  in  point,  to 
illustrate  and  enforce  particular  maxims  of  Christian 
ethics,  or  particular  rules  of  Christian  duty,  binding 
at  the  time  and  at  all  times,  upon  those  to  whom 
they  were  addressed,  and  upon  all  men. 

We  further  notice  that  parables  of  this  class  do 
not  in  the  least  depend  upon  the  course  of  future 
events  for  a  ready,  just  and  full  apprehension  of  their 
true  import  and  design,  but  upon  the  accompanying 
explanation  of  our  Saviour  alone ;  indeed,  that  the 
course  of  future  events  is  expected  to  add  nothing, 
and  can  add  nothing,  to  the  clearness,  completeness 
and  force  of  their  meaning,  as  timely,  pertinent  and 
perpetual  illustrations  of  ever-present  duties  and 
obligations  ;  duties  and  obligations  which,  requiring 
no  reference  to  the  future,  or  to  the  past,  belong  to 
the  case  of  every  man,  and  to  the  ever-present  now. 

But  we  notice  nothing  of  this  kind  in  respect  to 
the  unexplained  parables.  Very  true  it  is,  that  the 
unexplained  parables  are  sometimes,  like  the  explained 


14  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

parables,  loosely  employed,  in  whole  or  in  part,  as 
familiar  illustrations  of  particular  moral  and  Chris- 
tian duties  and  obligations.  It  may  be  very  well  to 
employ  them  in  such  subsidiary  sense,  or  with  such 
ethical  reference,  but  it  should  always  be  with  a 
manifest  reservation  ;  for  it  is  not  well,  in  so  em- 
ploying them,  to  fail  of  their  primary,  their  higher, 
and  their  intended,  though  less  obvious  meaning  and 
design,  which  is  more  vast  and  far-reaching  and  con- 
sequential by  far.  Indeed,  remissness  or  misappre- 
hension in  this  respect,  is  apt  to  lead  us  into  grave 
and  dangerous  errors  in  regard  to  the  nature  and 
office,  the  divine  and  human  relations,  of  Christ's 
spiritual  kingdom  on  the  earth  under  the  present 
Gospel  dispensation,  and  the  dispensational  results, 
near  and  remote,  which,  according  to  prophecy,  are 
to  be  accomplished  thereby :  which  results,  as  it 
appears  to  us,  it  is  the  special  province  of  the  unex- 
plained parables,  both  public  and  private,  to  fore- 
show. 

In  a  certain  sense  all  the  teachings  of  our  Saviour 
are  prophetic.  His  sermon  on  the  mount  is  by  some 
expositors  called  the  prophecy  on  the  mount.  So 
also  His  various  discourses  to  His  disciples,  espe- 
cially His  farewell  discourses  to  them  on  the  week  of 
His  crucifixion;  His  discourse  on  the  new  birth  to 
Nicodemus;  His  denunciation  of  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  in  the  temple  on  the  Wednesday  evening 
preceding  His  crucifixion ;  and  the  explained  para- 
bles themselves.  Indeed,  all  the  teachings  of  our 
Saviour  are  prophetic  in  the  sense  of  being  applicable 
at  all  times,  during  the  whole  rounded  term  of  the 
present  Gospel  dispensation,  to  the  moral  condition, 
and  spiritual  wants  and  necessities  of  mankind,  in 
the  various  classes  into  which  they  are  Scripturally 
divided. 

But  the  unexplained  parables,  both  public  and 
private,  are  prophetic  in  a  very  different,  and  far 
higher  and  closer  sense;  for  they  foreshow  with  the 
most  literal  fidelity,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  dispen- 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  15 

sation,  the  actual  and  absolute  results  of  the  moral 
conduct  of  mankind,  in  their  relations  to  Christ's 
spiritual  kingdom,  throughout  the  whole  course  of  the 
Gospel  dispensation.  The}'  are  a  prospective  history 
of  the  moral  conduct  and  acts  of  mankind,  in  their 
relation  to  that  kingdom,  to  the  end  of  the  dispensa- 
tion ;  precisely  as,  at  the  end  of  the  dispensation,  they 
will  be  a  retrospective  history  thereof,  without  the 
necessity,  at  the  end  of  the  dispensation,  of  altering 
a  single  word  in  which  they  were  expressed  at  the 
beginning  of  it;  for  known  unto  their  Divine  Author 
were  all  things,  past,  present,  and  to  come,  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world. 

Does  the  reader  desire  Scriptural  evidence  of  the 
prophetic  office  and  character  of  the  unexplained 
parables  ?  Of  course,  the  highest  possible  evidence, 
which  is  tantamount  to  our  Saviour's  declaration  to 
this  effect,  is  His  private  interpretation  of  some  of 
them  to  His  disciples.  He  has  thus,  for  example, 
interpreted,  in  respect  to  their  general  scope  and 
meaning,  without  satisfying  curiosity  as  to  definite 
particulars,  the  parables  of  the  sower,  the  draw-net 
and  the  tares. 

Again;  the  running  action,  so  to  speak,  of  the  three 
last  named  and  other  unexplained  parables  embraces, 
in  express  terms,  the  whole  period  of  the  Gospel  dis- 
pensation, from  its  earliest  seed-time  to  the  final  in- 
gathering of  its  harvest.  This  is  as  true  of  the 
unexplained  parables  which  were  not  privately  ex- 
plained at  the  time  of  their  delivery,  or  afterwards, 
as  of  those  which  were  privately  explained  ;  as,  for 
example,  those  of  the  leaven,  the  servants  left  in 
wait,  the  servant  left  instead  of  his  lord,  the  pounds, 
the  ten  virgins,  the  talents,  etc. 

Not  less  decisive  evidence  of  their  prophetic  office 
and  character  is  afforded  by  the  literal  and  exact 
fulfilment,  already  accomplished,  of  the  prophecies 
which  some  of  them  contain.  Thus  the  parable  of 
the  wicked  husbandmen  was  fulfilled  to  the  letter  by 
the  crucifixion  of  our  Saviour,  within  three  days  after 


16  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

it  was  uttered  ;  while  others,  not  wholly  fulfilled  as 
yet,  are  no  less  clearly  in  process  of  fulfilment. 

Again;  it  is  "the  kingdom  of  God,"  or  "king- 
dom of  heaven;"  that  is,  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom, 
or  professing  Church,  under  its  present  earthly 
form  and  manifestation;  in  its  divine  and  human 
relations,  or  probationary  relations,  under  the  pre- 
sent Gospel  dispensation,  and  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  it,  without  any  limitation  of  time  except 
the  recorded  limitation  of  the  end  of  the  dispensa- 
tion; which  is,  in  express  terms,  presented  to  us 
under  the  symbols  and  similitudes  of  a  majority  of 
the  unexplained  parables;  which  majority  are  uni- 
formly introduced  with  the  words,  u  The  kingdom  of 
God,"  or  of  "  heaven,"  is  like  unto  this  or  that  symbol. 
These  symbols  and  similitudes,  being  generalized  by 
our  Saviour  into  brief  allegoric  narratives  of  inimi- 
table beauty,  of  strict  fidelity  to  actual  facts,  and  of 
wonderful  concentration  and  comprehensiveness  of 
meaning,  therefore  present  to  us  a  faithful  outline, 
in  advance,  of  the  real,  but  (to  the  judicially-blinded 
minds  of  the  Jewish  nation,  and  to  all  judicially- 
blinded  minds)  concealed  history  of  Christ's  spir- 
itual kingdom  in  its  present  earthly  form  and  mani- 
festation, throughout  the  whole  course  of  the  pre- 
sent Gospel  dispensation,  from  the  beginning  to  the 
end  of  it. 

Finally  ;  it  was  our  Saviour's  declared  purpose 
(Matt,  xiii,  10-16)  to  veil  the  hidden  sense  of  His 
public  and  unexplained  parables,  and  to  conceal  it 
entirely  from  the  judicially-blinded  minds  of  those 
to  whom  they  were  addressed;  "lest  at  anytime  they 
should  see  with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with  their  ears, 
and  should  understand  with  their  heart,  and  should 
be  converted,  and  I  should  heal  them."  This  is  re- 
markably  true  of  one  group  of  them,  the  first  which 
He  uttered,  the  group  in  regard  to  which  He  declared 
His  purpose  to  conceal  His  meaning  from  His 
hearers.  We  refer  to  those  recorded  in  the  thir- 
teenth chapter  of  Matthew. 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  17 

Is  it  asked,  why  should  our  Saviour  address  these 
parables  to  the  Jewish  multitudes,  if  they  were  in- 
tended for  their  instruction  (as  all  the  teachings  of 
our  Saviour  were),  and  were  yet,  when  spoken,  unin- 
telligible to  them,  and  intended  so  to  be  ? 

Was  it  not,  we  inquire  in-  reply,  because  they 
were  intended,  not  for  the  present,  but  future  in- 
struction only,  of  the  nation?  because,  in  its  present 
judicial  blindness,  with  which  our  Saviour  never  in- 
terfered, t>ut  only  reaffirmed,  the  nation  was  utterly 
incapable  of  understanding  the  mysteries  of  Christ's 
spiritual  kingdom,  which  it  was  the  special  office 
(Matt,  xiii,  11)  of  the  unexplained  parables  to  un- 
fold? and  because,  in  the  distant  future,  at  the  ex- 
piration of  their  sentence  of  judicial  blindness,  the 
now  hidden  meaning  of  these  parables  would  be  sent 
home  to  their  now  blinded  minds  by  the  stern  and 
irresistible  logic  of  future  events?  Was  it  not  that 
when,  at  the  close  of  the  present  dispensation,  all  the 
prophecies  of  these  parables,  and  all  other  judgments 
against  the  guilty  nation  should  be  at  last  fulfilled, 
and  the  sentence  of  their  judicial  blindness  should 
be  ready  to  expire;  that  then,  the  promised  "Spirit  of 
grace  and  of  supplications"  being  poured  upon  them 
(Zeehariah  xii,  10),  they  should  be  able,  by  means  of 
these  prophetic  landmarks,  to  more  clearly  discern 
and  trace  all  the  way  their  long-suffering  God 
had  both  in  judgment  and  in  mercy  led  them,  and 
thus  be  convicted  of  their  sins  and  brought  to  re- 
pentance ? 

In  the  time  of  our  Saviour,  the  nation  was  sunk 
in  more  profound  judicial  darkness  than  ever  be- 
fore. The  little  light  that  was  in  them  was  a  greater 
darkness  than  ever  before.  Xot  only  had  their  sins 
called  down  upon  them,  seven  hundred  and  fifty  years 
before,  the  sentence  of  judicial  blindness,  as  pro- 
nounced by  the  prophet  Isaiah,  but  they  had  been 
daily  adding  to  it  ever  since,  and  were  more  than  ever 
adding  to  it  now,  in  their  blind  hate  and  rage,  by 
their  daily  rejection  of  their  Messiah  and  scornful 
2 


18  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

derision  of  Him  as  an  impostor  and  pretender.  Al- 
ready was  it  in  their  hearts  to  crucify  Him.  The 
very  day  on  which  the  first  parable  was  uttered,  they 
had  very  nearly,  if  not  quite,  committed  the  unpar- 
donable sin  of  blaspheming  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  this 
His  own  peculiar  dispensation,  by  the  impious  accu- 
sation :  "This  fellow  doth  not  cast  out  devils,  but  by 
Beelzebub  the  prince  of  the  devils." 

Moreover,  it  was  now  the  middle  of  the  second 
3'ear  of  our  Saviour's  ministry,  and  all  other  means 
of  reaching  their  impenetrable  hearts  had  been  re- 
sorted to  in  vain,  and  nothing  was  now  left  but  tore- 
iterate  to  the  incorrigibly  hardened  and  unbelieving 
nation  their  ancient  and  more  than  ever  merited  sen- 
tence of  judicial  blindness,  and  to  reconsign  them  to 
the  judicial  and  peremptory  wrath  of  a  holy  and  of- 
fended God.  Nothing,  in  short,  was  now  left,  but  to 
foretell  to  them,  not  what  might  be,  but  what  beyond 
a  peradventure,  or  possible  alternative,  should  be, 
the  certain  and  inevitable  consequences  of  their  in- 
fatuated blindness  and  unbelief;  in  the  hope,  the 
forlorn  hope,  forlorn  but  for  God's  ever  faithful  cove- 
nants with  their  fathers,  that  when,  at  the  end  of 
their  judicial  dispensation,  they  should  have  filled  up 
the  measure  of  their  fathers,  and  all  the  prophetic 
judgments  both  of  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Xew 
should  be  fulfilled  upon  them,  and  they  should  then 
look  upon  Him  whom  they  were  now  about  to  pierce; 
moved  by  "the  Spirit  of  grace  and  of  supplications," 
and  overwhelmed  by  the  unexpected  reappearance  of 
their  crucified  and  still  rejected  .Messiah,  and  by  the 
infinite  love  that  could  not  and  would  not  give  them 
up,  even  in  the  uttermost  extremity  of  their  sins  and 
in  the  uttermost  hour  of  a  longer,  and  darker,  and 
guiltier  dispensation  than  that  of  their  ancient  and 
forfeited  Theocracy;  and  appalled  by  the  indictment, 
which  the  black  record  of  their  sins,  running  through 
the  now  completed  term  of  two  dispensations,  would 
present  against  them  ;  they  would  then,  at  length, 
recognize  and  hail  their  crucified  Messiah  not  less  as 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  19 

their  pierced  and  bleeding  Saviour,  than  as  their 
promised  King,  and  mourn  because  of  their  rejection 
of  Him,  in  all  the  land,  all  their  families  apart,  and 
all  their  wives  apart,  as  one  mourneth  for  a  first-born 
and  an  only  son ;  and  hasten  with  one  accord  to  the 
fountain  which  in  that  day  will  be  opened  to  the 
house  of  David  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem 
for  sin  and  uncleanness,  remembering  all  their  evil 
ways  and  their  doings  that  were  not  good,  and  loath- 
ing themselves  in  their  own  sight,  for  their  iniquities 
and  their  abominations. 

It  is  not  for  us  to  speculate  as  to  the  reason  why 
our  Saviour  selected  parables,  a  purely  allegorical 
form  of  prophecy,  as  being  better  adapted  to  the 
judicial  blindness  of  the  nation,  than  a  more  direct 
and  literal  method  of  communicating  to  them  the 
certain  future  consequences  of  their  judicial  blind- 
ness and  their  sins ;  but  it  is  not  difficult  to  con- 
ceive that  the  nation,  in  their  blind  hate  and  rage, 
would  not  have  tolerated  His  ministry  another 
hour,  if  the  same  truths  had  been  told  to  them  in  a 
plainer  and  more  intelligible  form.  It  is  enough  for 
us,  that  our  Saviour,  in  accordance  with  the  invari- 
able practice  of  Old-Testament  prophecy,  did 
hold  up  to  the  nation  the  certain  future  consequences 
of  its  judicial  blindness  and  its  sins,  and  that,  for  this 
purpose,  He  employed  a  new  and  unaccustomed 
form  of  prophecy,  the  allegorical  form  of  parables, 
as  better  adapted  than  any  other  to  the  changed 
moral  and  spiritual  relations  of  a  new,  and  more 
complex,  and  more  spiritual  dispensation,  and  to  the 
then  moral  condition  of  the  nation. 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  at  greater  length 
upon  the  Scriptural  evidence  of  the  prophetic  office 
and  character  of  the  unexplained  parables;  for, 
after  all,  their  separate  exposition,  in  the  light  of  their 
own  and  other  Scripture  testimon}7,  is  the  most 
satisfactory  evidence  which  can  be  adduced,  that 
such  is  their  office  and  character. 

To  correctly  understand  the  prophetic  application 


20  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

of  the  unexplained  parables,  it  is  of  great  conse- 
quence to  first  place  before  our  minds,  as  clearly  and 
distinctly  as  possible,  some  of  the  leading  Scriptural 
divisions  of  mankind,  as  contemplated  by  both  the 
Old  and  New-Testament  Scriptures,  but  especially, 
as  concerning  our  present  theme,  b}T  the  unexplained 
parables.  Of  these  divisions  the  four  following  are 
among  the  most  prominent : — 

1.  The  unbelieving,  but  covenanted,  nation  of  the 
Jews. 

2.  The  unbelieving,  but  uncovenanted,  nations  of 
the  Gentiles. 

3.  The  Professing  Church. 

4.  The  Elect  Church  or  "  remnant  according  to 
the  election  of  grace,"  chosen  out  of  the  unbelieving 
Jewish  and  Gentile  nations. 

The  two  classes  first  named  are  often,  though  by 
no  means  always,  spoken  of  in  the  Scriptures,  in 
respect  to  their  common  unbelief,  as  forming  one 
class  only,  but  whenever  the}'  are  spoken  of  in  refer- 
ence to  the  several  Jewish  covenants,  they  are  care- 
fully discriminated  from  one  another. 

The  two  classes  last  named,  though  often  referred 
to  in  Scripture  under  the  third  head,  are  yet  in  other 
passages,  and  especially  in  the  unexplained  parables, 
carefully  distinguished. 

Our  Saviour  first  offered  to  the  unbelieving  but 
covenanted  Jewish  nation  in  its  judicial  blindness, 
or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  to  the  professing,  but 
wholly  corrupt  and  apostate  Jewish  Church,  which 
hitherto  was  His  only  visible  Church  on  earth,  not 
the  Davidic  and  temporal  kingdom  which  they  had 
expected,  and  which  had  been  promised  to  them,  of 
which  He  was  to  be  the  Theocratic  head,  but  of 
which  in  their  sins  they  were  as  yet  unworth}7;  but 
His  spiritual  kingdom  only,  aud  that  011I37,  on  account 
of  their  sins,  upon  conditions  which  were  as  repug- 
nant to  their  ceremonial  self-righteousness,  as  it 
wras  to  their  infatuated  worldly  hopes  and  expecta- 
tions. 


iskakl's  judicial  blindness.  21 

The  result  was  simply  as  had  been  foretold,  and 
as  could  only  have  been  expected,  that  they  re- 
jected Him,  blindly  shutting  against  themselves  the 
graciously-opened  door  of  His  spiritual  kingdom, 
and  its  graciously-offered  and  free  salvation.  ''Away 
with  Him,  away  with  Him;"  "Crucify  Him,  crucify 
Him;"  "His  blood  be  on  us  and  on  our  children;" 
"we  will  not  have  this  man  to  rule  over  us;"  was 
their  cry.  And  despised  and  derided,  rejected  and 
crucified,  He  returned  to  heaven,  even  as  when  His 
Personal  Divine  Glory  ascended  thither,  as  seen  by 
the  prophet  Ezekiel,  when,  in  the  obstinate  wor- 
ship of  their  false  gods,  and  the  incorrigible  apos- 
tasy of  their  hearts,  they  rejected  His  Theocratic 
supremacy  over  them  six  hundred  years  before. 

In  the  judicial  blindness  of  their  hearts,  they  re- 
fused to  consider  that  it  had  never  been  covenanted 
to  them,  that  their  Messiah  should  set  up  His  tem- 
poral kingdom  of  unequalled  earthly  glory  and  ex- 
altation so  long  as  they  continued  in  their  sins,  but 
then  only,  when  the}' should  be  converted  from  them. 
In  their  judicial  blindness,  they  altogether  refused  to 
believe  that  the}'  were  a  sinful  and  unbelieving  na- 
tion. In  their  blind  apostasy  and  blind  expectation 
of  merely  earthly  state  and  splendor,  an  expectation 
which  honored  not  their  Messiah,  and  exalted  not 
His  glory,  excepting  in  a  merely  earthl}'  and  human 
sense,  but  their  own  worldly  glory  only;  and  iii  their 
sinful  and  obstinate  determination  to  realize  and  en- 
joy the  covenanted  glories  of  the  Messianic  kingdom 
without  repentance  and  forgiveness  of  their  sins; 
they  forfeited  and  lost  both  their  Messiah's  spiritual 
and  Davidic  kingdom  ;  or,  if  they  did  not  wholly  lose 
them,  they  indefinitely  postponed  their  covenanted 
manifestation  and  glory,  and  doomed  themselves 
anew  to  the  curses  which  Moses  and  the  judicial 
blindness  which  Isaiah  had  pronounced  upon  them, 
and  to  stumble  and  be  broken  in  pieces,  throughout 
the  vast  and  weary  and  sorrowful  round  of  their 
judicial  dispensation,  upon  the  Rock,  which,  as  the 


22  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

original  builders  they  thus   obstinately  and  fatally 
refused. 

What  utterly  inexcusable  not  less  than  fatal  folly, 
to  deny  that  our  Saviour  was  their  predicted  Mes- 
siah!    How  plainly  His  primogenitive  right  to  the 
vacant  throne  of  David  was  established  by  the  Jew- 
ish records,  which  their   Kabbis  could  so  well  and 
readily  interpret  in  all  other  respects!    How  clearly 
and  indisputably,   according  to  those    records,  did 
He  unite   in   Himself  the   right  of  the  posterity  of 
David  in  both  of  its  lines,  at   the  time  of  His  birth, 
to    the    indefeasible    possession    of    the    throne   of 
David!    According  to  these  records,  this  right  cen- 
tered  in   our  Saviour,  both   by  the  line  of  Solomon 
and  by  that  of  Nathan,  each  of  whom  were  alike  de- 
scended from  David  and  Bathsheba,  to  whose  pos- 
terity, in  particular,  the  original   grant  had   especi- 
ally restricted  the  promise  of  an  hereditary  temporal 
kingdom.     At  the  time  of  the  Babylonian  captivity, 
these  lines  were  united   in  the   person  of  Zorobabel, 
and   at  the  birth  of  Christ  they  were  united  in  the 
person  of  Christ;  the  right  of  Resa,  one  of  the  sons 
of  Zorobabel,  being  transmitted  to  him  through  Eli 
and  Mary,  and  the  right  of  Abiud,  another  son   of 
Zorobabel,  through  Joseph.     Thus  the  indefeasible 
right    of   the   posterity    of    David    to   the    temporal 
throne  of  Israel,  such  as  it  had  been  covenanted  to 
them   forever  by  the   promise  of  God  before  David 
had  an}^  posterity,  became   finally  centered  in   the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ;  both  in  the  natural  sense  as 
the  first-born  of  Mary,   and  in   the   civil  and   legal 
sense  as  the  first-born  of  Joseph.     How  perfectly  co- 
incident with  this  record,  the  announcement  of  the 
angel   Gabriel    to  the   virgin  Mary,    "Behold,  thou 
shalt   conceive  in  thy  womb,  and   bring  forth  a  son, 
and  shalt  call  His  name  Jesus.     He  shall  be  great, 
and  shall  be  called  the  Son  of  the   Highest;  and  the 
Lord  shall   o;ive  unto   Him  the  throne  of  His  father 
David,  and  He  shall  reign  over  the  house  of  Israel 
forever." 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  23 

So  also  His  divine  claims  as  the  King  of  grace,  or 
their  spiritual  Messiah,  were  no  less  clearl}'  attested 
by  His  innumerable  miracles,  than  were  His  legal 
claims  as  the  King  of  Israel,  or  their  temporal  Mes- 
siah, by  the  Jewish  records.  But  they  despised  and 
rejected  Him,  putting  Him  to  the  base  death  of  a 
Roman  slave,  and  invoking  upon  their  own  heads, 
and  upon  the  heads  of  their  children,  His  innocent 
blood.  And  there  the  self-invoked  and  bloody  curse 
has  rested  ever  since,  and  will  continue  to  rest,  until, 
red  with  its  uncommon  wrath,  the  covenants  of  the 
divine  wrath  shall  all  be  fulfilled  upon  them.  Such 
was  the  crowning  iniquity,  under  the  New-Testament 
dispensation,  of  their  judicial  blindness,  their  judicial 
condemnation  and  their  judicial  shame! 

And  what  was  the  result  of  their  rejection  of  their 
Messiah  ?  The  parable  of  the  wicked  husbandmen 
teaches  us.  In  this,  which,  it  will  be  remembered,  is 
one  of  the  public  and  unexplained  parables,  our  Sa- 
viour, having  foretold  His  own  crucifixion  (within 
three  days  afterwards),  adds  : — 

"Did  ye  never  read  in  the  Scriptures,  the  stone  which  the 
builders  rejected,  the  same  is  become  the  head  of  the  corner; 
this  is  the  Lord's  doing,  and  it  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes  ? 
Therefore  I  say  unto  you,  The  kingdom  of  God  shall  be 
taken  from  you,  and  shall  be  given  to  a  nation  bringing  forth 
the  fruits  thereof.  And  whosoever  shall  fall  on  this  stone 
shall  be  broken;  but  on  whomsoever  it  shall  fall,  it  will  grind 
him  to  powder." 

The  nation  here  referred  to  does  not  mean,  as  is 
sometimes  loosely  supposed,  the  Gentile  nations  in 
distinction  from  the  Jewish  nation.  In  this  the  best 
expositors  are  very  generally  agreed.  Xeither  is  it 
meant  that  the  kingdom  of  God,  or  the  Messiah's 
spiritual  kingdom,  should  be  taken  from  the  Jewish 
nation,  and  given  to  all  nations  indiscriminately,  Jew 
and  Gentile  alike,  considered  as  one  nation  ;  either 
then,  or  at  any  time  during  the  progress  of  the 
present  dispensation.  The  meaning  is,  as  we  hope 
to   explain,    that   the   Messiah's    spiritual    kingdom 


24  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

should  be  taken  from  the  Jewish  nation,  considered 
as  the  Jewish  Church,  Christ's  only  visible  Church 
on  earth  hitherto,  but  now  hopelessly  apostate,  and 
given,  not,  as  might  at  first  be  supposed,  to  the  pro- 
fessing Christian  Church  at  large,  under  the  present 
Gospel  dispensation,  but  to  Christ's  elect  Church,  the 
e$voq  ayiov,  His  chosen  ''remnant  according  to  the 
election  of  grace,"  chosen  out  of  Jews  and  Gentiles 
both  ;  chosen  out  of  all  nations,  and  all  generations, 
all  kindreds  and  tribes  and  tongues,  Jew  and  Greek, 
Scythian  and  barbarian,  bond  and  free.  This  is 
Alford's  exposition  of  this  passage  from  Matthew, 
and  it  appears  to  us  to  be  Scriptural  and  sound. 

Such,  then,  is  the  nation  here  referred  to  by  our 
Saviour.  Such  is  the  only  nation  that  bringeth  forth, 
that  ever  has  brought  forth,  that  ever  will  bring  forth, 
fruit  in  its  season.  The  allusion  is  not  to  auy  par- 
ticular professing  Church,  or  to  the  professing  Church 
at  large,  which  is  very  far  from  bringing  forth  fruit 
in  its  season,  excepting  so  far  only  as  it  includes  the 
chosen  remnant,  the  elect  Church,  the  holy  nation. 
The  Jewish  nation,  under  the  Old-Testament  dispen- 
sation, was  a  professing  Church,  but  it  was  as  barren 
and  unfruitful  as  the  fig-tree,  which,  in  another  of 
our  Saviour's  public  and  unexplained  parables,  sym- 
bolized it.  But  there  was  always  a  faithful  remnant, 
according  to  the  foreknowledge  of  God,  preserved  in 
it;  "a  chosen  generation,"  that  belonged  not  in  any 
spiritual  sense  to  the  wicked  and  adulterous  genera- 
tion which  composed  the  professing  Jewish  Church 
at  large  ;  "a  royal  priesthood,"  which,  restricted  not 
to  the  tribe  of  Levi,  offered  up  spiritual  sacrifices 
acceptable  to  God  by  the  typified  blood  of  their 
coming  Messiah;  seven  thousand  who  worshiped 
not  at  Dan  and  Bethel,  and  bowed  not  to  Ashteroth 
or  Baal,  or  to  any  of  "  the  hosts  of  heaven."  This 
holy  nation  ever  existed,  under  the  Old-Testament 
dispensation,  within  the  unholy  Jewish  nation  at 
large,  and  within  the  corrupt  and  apostate  professing 
Jewish  Church  at  large.  Preserved  in  the  ark  of  God's 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  25 

ancient  and  everlasting  covenants  of  blessing,  it  out- 
rode all  the  storms  of  God's  covenants  of  wrath 
under  the  Old-Testament  dispensation,  and,  in  its 
Jewish  successors,  will  outride  all  the  storms  of  the 
covenants  of  wrath  under  the  In  ew-Testament  dispen- 
sation ;  greatly  enlarged,  however,  by  ''the  remnant 
according  to  the  election  of  grace,"  which  will  be 
gathered  out  of  the  Gentile  nations  (Acts  xv,  14), 
under  the  present  dispensation ;  while  on  the  other 
hand,  the  unbelieving  and  ungodly  Gentile  nations 
at  large  under  the  new  dispensation^  like  the  unbe- 
lieving and  ungodly  Jewish  nation  at  large  under  the 
old,  and  the  unbelieving  and  apostate  professing 
Christian  Church  at  large  under  the  new  dispensa- 
tion, like  the  unbelieving  and  apostate  professing 
Jewish  Church  at  large  under  the  old,  will,  in  the  end, 
and  in  like  manner,  be  disowned  and  destroyed.  In 
a  word,  and  the  unexplained  parables,  we  believe, 
will  show  it,  the  histoiy  of  the  professing  Jewish 
Church  under  the  Old-Testament  dispensation,  is  an 
exact  type  of  what  in  the  end  will  be  the  history  of 
the  professing  Christian  Church  under  the  New -Tes- 
tament dispensation.  The  proud  and  vain  hopes  of 
the  Gentile  nations,  professing  themselves  Christian, 
and  of  the  Gentile  Church,  professing  itself  Christian, 
will  be  as  sorely  disappointed  and  as  ingloriously 
overthrown  at  the  second  coming  of  Israel's  Messiah, 
as  were  those  of  the  professing  Jewish  Church  and 
nation  at  His  first  coming.  He  was  wise  who  pro- 
claimed, ;t  The  thing  that  hath  been,  it  is  that  which 
shall  be ;  and  that  which  is  done  is  that  which  shall 
be  done :  and  there  is  no  uqw  thing  under  the  sun." 
But  the  chosen  remnant  always  remains.  It  always 
has  been  preserved.  It  always  will  be  preserved. 
Absolute]}',  they  are  a  great  multitude,  a  multitude 
which  no  man  can  number.  But,  relative!}',  as  com- 
pared with  the  unbelieving  world  at  large,  whose 
prince  and  god  Satan  is,  and  will  be,  to  the  end  of 
the  dispensation,  they  are,  as  our  Saviour  calls  them, 
"a  little  flock."  They  only  are  the  holy  nation.  They 


26  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

only  bring  forth  fruits  in  their  season.  The  profess- 
ing Christian  Church  brings  forth  no  fruit,  excepting 
so  far  only  as  this  holy  remnant  are  numbered  among 
its  professors,  precisely  as  the  professing  Jewish 
Church  brought  forth  fruit  so  far  only  as  they  were 
members  of  that  Church.  The  holy  nation  only,  as 
in  the  parable  of  the  sower,  brings  forth  some  thirty, 
and  some  sixt}7,  and  some  an  hundred  fold.  They 
only,  as  in  the  parable  of  the  tares,  are  the  wheat 
that  will  be  gathered  into  the  heavenly  garners, 
while  the  tares,  that  grow  together  with  them  tili 
the  harvest,  wTill  be  burned  with  unquenchable  fire. 
They  only,  as  in  the  parable  of  the  draw -net,  are  the 
good  fish  that,  when  the  net  is  drawn  to  the  shore, 
will  be  gathered  into  vessels,  while  the  bad  are  cast 
away.  They  only,  as  in  the  parables  of  the  pounds 
and  the  talents,  will  faithfully  fulfil  their  several 
trusts,  and  give  a  good  account  of  their  stewardship 
when  their  absent  Lord  returns.  They  only,  as  in 
the  parable  of  the  marriage  ot  the  king's  son,  will 
sit  down  at  the  marriage-supper  of  the  Lamb, 
arrayed  in  their  white  robes.  Their  lamps  only,  as 
in  the  parable  of  the  ten  virgins,  will  be  found 
trimmed  and  burning,  when  the  cry  is  heard,  "  Be- 
hold the  bridegroom  cometh,  go  ye  out  to  meet  Him." 
They  only,  as  in  the  beautiful  parable  of  the  Song 
which  Solomon  wrote  in  the  best  moments  of  his 
life,  are  the  virgin  who  dwelleth  among  the  gardens, 
who  may  treat  her  beloved  coldly,  as  he  stands  at  the 
door  and  knocks,  his  head  filled  with  the  dew  and 
his  locks  with  the  drops  of  the  morning,  but  who, 
anon,  beccmes  distressed  for  him,  and  calls  after 
him,  and  seeks  for  him  among  the  gardens  and  the 
bed  of  spices  wrhere  he  is  gone  down;  she  cften  for- 
getting, but  he  never  forgetful,  His  love  never  chang- 
ing, He  the  highest  of  all  the  sons  of  men,  the  chiefest 
among  ten  thousand,  and  the  One  altogether  lovely. 
They  only  will  inherit,  in  their  sevenfold  spiritual 
completeness,  the  blessed  promises  of  the  beatitudes. 
Their  names  only  are  written    from   the    foundation 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  27 

of  the  world  in  the  Book  of  Life  of  the  slain  Lamb. 
They  only  follow  the  Lamb  whithersoever  He  goeth. 
They  only  are  the  sheep  who  know  His  voice  and  an- 
swer to  His  call.  They  onl3T  bear  His  reproach  without 
the  gates,  loving  not  their  lives,  if  need  be, even  unto 
death.  Of  them  only  is  the  holy  army  of  the  martyrs 
composed.  They  only,  of  those  who  profess  the  form 
of  godliness,  attest  the  power  thereof.  They  only 
will  bold  fast  till  Christ  comes,  for  "  called  and 
chosen  and  faithful1'  is  their  name.  They  only  are 
strangers  and  pilgrims,  sometimes  almost  losing  their 
way  amidst  the  storms  and  darkness,  the  allure- 
ments and  perplexities  and  confusions,  of  a  ruined  and 
revolted  world  ;  having  no  continuing  city  here,  but 
seeking  one  to  come.  They  only,  and  not  the  pro- 
fessing Church  (no  mention  whatever  is  made  of 
that),  are  described  in  the  Book  of  Revelation  as 
bearing  a  faithful  testimony  to  the  very  end  of 
the  dispensation,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  judicial 
terrors  of  its  closing  scenes,  against  the  overwhelm- 
ing odds  of  the  thronging  powers  of  darkness,  even 
though  made  war  upon  and  overcome  by  them  ;  over- 
come till  He  comes  whose  right  it  is  to  tread  the 
guilty  world  in  the  wine-press  of  the  fierceness  and 
wrath  of  the  Almighty  God.  The}"  onhT,  and  those 
of  them  only  who  are  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  in- 
heriting at  last  God's  faithful  covenants,  will  recon- 
struct banished  and  shattered  and  down-trodden  Israel, 
and  build  again  her  waste  places,  and  build  again  the 
tabernacle  of  David  which  is  fallen  down,  and  build 
again  the  ruins  thereof,  and  set  it  up  ;  that  the  resi- 
due of  men  and  all  the  Gentiles  may  seek  after  the 
Lord,  till  from  the  rising  of  the  sun,  even  unto  the 
going  down  thereof  His  name  shall  be  great  among 
them.  Yes.  they,  they  011I3*,  a  thousand  times  be  it 
said,  are  the  holy  nation,  to  whom  the  kingdom  of 
God,  Christ's  spiritual  kingdom,  His  precious  vine- 
yard, can  in  a  just  and  legitimate,  and  strict  and  true, 
or  literal,  or  spiritual  sense  be  said  to  have  been  given, 
when  it  was  taken  from  the  apostate  Jewish  nation, 


28  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

and  apostate  Jewish  Church,  and  given  unto  them: 
"Fear  not,  little  flock,  for  it  is  your  Father's  good 
pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom/' 

Tbe  apostle  Peter,  in  admonishing  the  infant 
Church  of  its  high  calling,  its  privileges,  its  du- 
ties and  its  dangers,  thus  beautifully  and  propheti- 
cally describes  the  elect  and  holy  nation,  as  contrasted 
with  the  world  at  large  throughout  the  whole  course 
of  the  present  dispensation,  down  to  the  second  com- 
ing of  our  Saviour,  or  as  the  apostle  styles  it,  "the 
day  of  visitation." 

"As  new-born  babes,  desire  the  sincere  milk  of  the  word, 
that  ye  may  grow  thereby;  if  so  be  ye  have  tasted  that  the 
Lord  is  gracious,  to  whom  coming,  as  unto  a  living  stone, 
disallowed  indeed  of  men,  but  chosen  of  God,  and  precious; 
ye  also,  as  lively  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house,  a 
holy  priesthood,  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices  acceptable  to 
God  by  Jesus  Christ.  Wherefore,  also,  it  is  contained  in 
the  Scriptures,  Behold,  I  lay  in  Zion  a  chief  corner-stone, 
elect,  precious  ;  and  he  that  believeth  in  him  shall  not  be 
confounded.  Unto  you,  therefore,  which  believe,  he  is 
precious  :  but  unto  them  which  be  disobedient,  the  stone 
which  the  builders  disallowed,  the  same  is  made  the  head  of 
the  corner,  and  a  stone  of  stumbling,  and  a  rock  of  offense, 
even  to  them  which  stumble  at  the  word,  being  disobedient : 
whereunto  all  they  were  appointed.  But  ye  are  a  chosen 
generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  a  holy  nation,  a  peculiar 
people  ;  that  ye  should  show  forth  the  praises  of  him  who 
called  you  out  of  darkness  into  his  marvelous  light.  Dearly 
beloved,  I  beseech  you  as  strangers  and  pilgrims,  abstain 
from  fleshly  lusts,  which  war  against  the  soul  :  having  your 
conversation  honest  among  the  Gentiles  [the  unconverted 
world  around  youj  :  that  whereas  they  speak  against  you  as 
evil  doers,  they  may  by  your  good  works,  which  they  shall 
behold,  glorify  God  in  the  day  of  visitation." 

Xot  less  beautifully,  though  less  in  its  abstract 
and  spiritual,  and  more  in  its  prophetico-historical 
relations,  has  the  apostle  Paul  described  that  portion 
of  the  hoi}'  nation  which  consists  of  the  Jewish 
"  election"  only. 

AY  hen  the  apostle  wrote  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans, 


ISRAEL'S   JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  29 

the  curse  of  judicial  blindness  was  resting  upon 
apostate  Israel,  and,  in  respect  to  the  covenants  of 
blessing,  the  remnant  of  Israel  according  to  the  elec- 
tion of  grace  were  the  onty  representatives  of  the 
nation  that  were  left,  the  nation  at  large  being  "con- 
cluded ill  unbelief." 

"I  say  then,  hath  God  cast  away  his  people  ?  God  forbid. 
For  I  also  am  an  Israelite,  of  the  seed  of  Abraham,  of  the 
tribe  of  Benjamin.  God  hath  not  cast  away  his  people 
which  he  foreknew  [that  is,  His  elect  remnant  in  the  sense 
above  explained].  Wot  ye  not  what  the  Scripture  saith  of 
Elias  ?  how  he  maketh  intercession  to  God  against  Israel, 
saying,  Lord,  they  have  killed  thy  prophets,  and  digged 
down  thine  altars  ;  and  I  am  left  alone,  and  they  seek  my 
life.  But  what  saith  the  answer  of  God  unto  him  ?  I  have 
reserved  to  myself  seven  thousand  men,  who  have  not  bowed 
the  knee  to  the  image  of  Baal.  Even  so  then  at  this  present 
time,  also,  there  is  a  remnant  according  to  the  election  of 
grace.  Israel  [the  unbelieving  nation  at  large]  hath  not 
obtained  that  which  he  seeketh  for  ;  but  the  election  hath 
obtained  it,  and  the  rest  were  blinded." 

The  apostle  tells  us,  directly  afterwards,  how  long 
Israel's  judicial  blindness  will  last. 

"For  I  would  not,  brethren,  that  ye  should  be  ignorant 
of  this  mystery,  lest  ye  should  be  wise  in  your  own  conceits, 
that  blindness  in  part  is  happened  to  Israel,  until  the  fullness 
of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in.  And  so  all  Israel  shall  be 
saved  :  as  it  is  written,  There  shall  come  out  of  Z:on  the 
Deliverer,  and  shall  turn  away  ungodliness  from  Jacob  ;  for 
this  is  my  covenant  unto  them,  when  I  shall  take  away  their 
sins." 

"•Until  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in;" 
that  is,  until  the  fullness,  or  full  complement,  of 
the  Gentile  elect  shall  be  gathered  in  from  the  un- 
believing Gentile  nations;  or,  which  is  the  same 
thing,  until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  ful- 
filled ;  even  as  our  Saviour  said  to  His  disciples, 
"  And  they  [Israel]  shall  fall  by  the  edge  of  the 
sword,  and  shall  be  led  away  captive  into  all  nations, 


30  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

and  Jerusalem  shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles, 
until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  fulfilled." 

This  is  the  prophetic  order.  The  events,  however, 
are  s37nchronous  in  their  occurrence.  The  fullness 
of  the  Gentiles  will  come  in.  The  full  comple- 
ment of  "  the  remnant  according  to  the  election,"  of 
Christ's  elect  and  invisible  Church,  of  the  holy  na- 
tion, being  gathered  in  and  made  up  from  among  the 
unbelieving  nations,  the  dispensation  will  end.  The 
times  of  the  Gentiles  will  be  fulfilled.  The  dispen- 
sation of  unbelief  will  end.  The  dispensation,  or, 
rather,  the  ages  of  faith,  will  begin.  Israel's  blind- 
ness will  be  removed.  Israel's  Messiah  will  come 
again,  and  will  not  be  rejected.  "  The  Spirit  of  grace 
and  of  supplications"  will  be  poured  ou,t  upon  the 
house  of  Israel.  All  the  tribes  of  the  land  will  "  look 
upon  Him  whom  they  have  pierced,"  when  "in 
that  day  His  feet  shall  stand  upon  the  Mount  of 
Olives,"  and  will  mourn  because  of  their  past  rejec- 
tion of  Him,  and  because  of  all  their  sins  and  un- 
cleanness,  with  great  and  unparalleled  mourning ; 
even  as  one  mourneth  for  his  only  son  and  is  in  bit- 
terness for  his  first-born.  God  "  will  take  away  their 
sins,"  and  "  will  cast  their  sins  into  the  depths  of  the 
sea,"  and  wrill  bestow  upon  them,  in  full  fruition,  all 
the  blessings  of  all  His  covenants  of  blessing  with 
them.  The  holy  seed,  or  holy  remnant  of  Israel,  will 
swell  into  stately  national  proportions,  a  new  Israel, 
regenerate,  re-created,  "born  in  a  day,"  and, according 
to  the  covenant,  "set  on  high  above  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth."  David  will  never  again  want  a  man  to 
sit  upon  his  now  vacant  throne  to  the  end  of  the  dis- 
pensations which  are  revealed.  Christ  will  sit  and 
reign  thereon  through  all  the  millennial  years,  alike 
as  the  King  of  glory,  the  King  of  David,  and  the 
King  of  grace,  in  the  manifested  and  triumphant 
glory  both  of  temporal  and  spiritual  sovereignty,  to 
the  utmost  limit  of  the  record  of  the  ages  which  are 
revealed;  till  time  ends,  and  eternity  begins. 

Thus  much  concerning;  the  Jewish  "  remnant  ac- 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  31 

cording  to  the  election  of  grace,"  and  the  prophetic 
future  which  awaits  them.  Concerning  the  Gentile 
"remnant  according  to  the  election  of  grace,"  and 
the  future  which  also  awaits  them,  equally  clear  tes- 
timon}^  is  not  wanting. 

The  apostle  James  speaks  expressly  (Acts  xv, 
14,  etc.)  of  this  holy  Gentile  remnant,  as  gathered 
out  of  the  unbelieving  Gentile  nations  under  the  pre- 
sent Gospel  dispensation.  The  stand-point,  as  it  will 
be  observed,  from  which  he  takes  his  survey,  is  the 
close  of  the  next,  or  millennial,  dispensation. 

"Simeon  [Simon  Peter]  hath  declared  how  God  at  the 
first  [at  the  commencement  of  the  Gospel  dispensation,  and 
upon  the  rejection  by  Israel  of  her  Messiah]  did  visit  the 
Gentiles,  [not  to  convert  them,  but]  to  take  out  of  them  a 
people  for  his  name.  And  to  this  aiTee  the  words  of  the 
prophet  ;  as  it  is  written,  after  this  [after  the  close  of  the 
Gospel  dispensation,  and  at  the  commencement  of  the  next, 
or  millennial,  dispensation]  /  will  return,  and  will  build 
again  the  tabernacle  of  David,  which  is  fallen  down,  and  I 
will  build  again  the  ruins  thereof,  and  I  will  set  it  up:  that 
the  residue  of  men  may  seek  after  the  Lord,  and  all  the 
Gentiles,  upon  whom  my  name  is  called,  saith  the  Lord, 
whodoeth  all  these  things." 

The  apostle's  allusion  in  this  passage  is  evidently 
to  the  future  exaltation  and  gloiy  of  the  Jewish 
nation  in  the  next,  or  millennial,  dispensation  ;  and 
to  the  universal  in-gathering  into  the  elect  and  holy 
nation,  or  spiritual  Israel,  under  that  dispensation, 
of  the  remaining  Gentiles  of  the  earth  ;  in  accord- 
ance with  the  covenant  of  God  with  Abraham  that, 
in  its  fulfilment,  not  Israel  alone,  but  "  all  the  fami- 
lies of  the  earth,  should  be  blessed."  Meanwhile  the 
guilty  world  will  roll  on  in  its  sins,  until  its  last 
revolution,  under  the  present  dispensation,  is  com- 
plete. 

The  guilty  and  unbelieving  Jewish  nation — with 
its  invincible  tenacity  and  individuality  of  life;  its  vast 
resources  of  silver  and  gold;  its  universal  solvency 
in  the  midst  of  universal  insolvency ;  its  undecaying 


32  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

intellectual  manhood  and  incomparable  learning;  its 
mighty  and  resistless  hold  upon  the  political  des- 
tinies of  the  very  nations  that  tread  it  down ;  its 
ever-restless  wanderings  into  all  the  uttermost  re- 
gions of  the  earth;  its  curious  eternal  countenance, 
never  varying  from  its  one  eternal  type,  whether  as 
seen  in  the  tombs  of  Bab}don,  the  pyramids  of  Egypt, 
on  the  entablatures  of  Nineveh,  or  in  the  highest 
seats  of  European  learning,  and  the  proudest  coun- 
cils of  European  state ;  with  its  judicial  blindness 
and  reserve;  always  rejecting  its  Messiah;  always  re- 
sisting the  Holy  Ghost  ("  as  your  fathers  did,  so  do 
ye") ;  alwa}7s,  according  to  the  prophetic  command 
of  our  Saviour,  filling  up  the  measure  of  its  fathers ; 
always,  like  the  bush  of  their  own  Horeb,  in  the 
flames  of  the  Divine  wrath,  but  never  consumed ; 
always  dismantled  and  dismembered,  outcast  and 
dispersed  and  trodden-down — will  roll  on  in  its  sins, 
until  overwhelmed  at  last  by  the  fiery  waves  of  its 
greatest  and  last  tribulation,  and  the  times  of  the 
Gentiles  are  fulfilled. 

So  also,  on  the  other  hand,  the  guilty  and 
unbelieving  Gentile  nations — who,  as  nations, 
are  of  no  recorded  account  in  the  prophetic 
Scriptures,  either  under  Israel's  probationary  or 
judicial  dispensation,  except  as  Israel's  op- 
pressors only — with  their  Christian  professions  and 
assumptions ;  their  mighty  races  and  nationalities, 
striding  through  the  world  as  Nebuchadnezzar  strode 
through  his  halls,  and  looking  complacently  forth 
upon  the  great  Baby  Ions  they  have  built  by  the  might 
of  their  power,  and  for  the  honor  of  their  majesty ; 
with  their  stately  and  imposing  civilizations  ;  their 
combined  and  successful  expositions  of  utmost 
human  splendor  and  utmost  human  endeavor ; 
their  social  refinements  and  accomplishments 
and  ameliorations;  their  grand  but  unsuccessful, 
and  so  often  anarchical  attempts  to  govern  them- 
selves apart  from  God  and  in  alienation  from  Him  ; 
their  "  strong  delusion ;"  their  audacious  and  infatu- 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  33 

ated  self-confidence  and  egotism  and  self-conceit,  and 
their  bankrupt  exchequers — will  roll  ou,  in  judicial 
unconsciousness  of  their  fate,  to  their  common  ruin, 
their  utter  confusion  and  disma3r,  their  complete  and 
final  and  judicial  overthrow;  melting  at  last,  like  Pros- 
peros'  spirits,  from  their  intoxicated  revels, 

"     *  into  air,  into  thin  air, 

And  like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision, 
****** 

An  insubstantial  pageant  faded,  dissolve, 
Nor  leave  a  rack  behind." 

"We  do  not  speak  of  the  Gentile  nations,  or  great 
world-powers  of  the  Gentiles,  as  being,  or  ever  be- 
coming, apostate,  in  the  sense  in  which  Israel  is  apos- 
tate. They  have  never  owned  or  recognized  Jehovah 
as  ruling  over  the  affairs  of  men,  in  the  sense  in  which 
Israel  has,  in  time  past,  so  owned  and  recognized 
Him  ;  and  they  cannot  therefore  apostatize  from  Je- 
hovah, in  the  sense  in  which  Israel  has  apostatized 
from  Him.  So  also,  on  the  other  hand,  has  God 
never  owned  or  recognized  the  Gentile  nations,  in  the 
sense  in  which  He  has  owned  and  recognized  Israel, 
nor  made  covenants  with  them,  as  He  has  made  co- 
venants with  Israel.  But  their  guilt  and  delusion  is 
not  therefore  any  less,  but  only  greater,  and  their 
doom  will  be  only  more  sudden  and  terrible,  in  that 
they  have  not  so  owned  and  recognized  Him.  There 
was  the  profoundest  historic  truth,  reaching  into  all 
the  coming  Jewish  and  Gentile  generations,  in  the 
prayer  of  the  children  of  Israel  by  the  waters  of 
Babylon ;  "  Return  for  thy  servant's  sake,  the  tribes 
of  thine  inheritance.  The  people  of  thy  holiness  have 
possessed  it  but  a  little  while ;  our  adversaries  have 
trodden  down  th}r  sanctuary.  We  are  thine ;  thou 
never  barest  rule  over  them ;  they  were  not  called  by 
thy  name." 

The  unbelieving  Gentile  nations,  and  we  refer 
more  particularly  to  those  great  world-powers  which 
have  the  most  conspicuous  prophetic  record  as  the 
3 


34  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

oppressors  of  Israel ;  to  those  which,  in  their  pro- 
phetic and  collective  unity,  are  represented  by  Ne- 
buchadnezzar's image  ;  to  Babylon,  Persia,  Greece 
and  Rome,  and  the  present  sovereignties  into  which 
the  Roman  empire  was  divided ;  cannot,  with  any 
Scriptural  propriety,  now  or  ever,  be  called  apostate 
nations.  They  have  had  no  High  and  Holy  One,  in 
the  sense  that  Israel  had,  to  apostatize  or  fall  away 
from.  They  have  never  belonged  to  God.  God  has 
never  owned  them  as  His  people.  They  have  only 
been  known  to  Him  as  the  oppressors  of  His  people, 
treading  them  down,  and  treading  down  His  sanc- 
tuary between  the  seas  in  the  glorious  holy  moun- 
tain ;  and  prophecy  only  recognizes  in  them  the 
oppressors  and  treaders-down  of  Israel,  until  their 
own  evil  times  shall  be  fulfilled.  God  never  bore 
rule  over  them.  They  were  never  called  by  His 
name.  The}T  are  only  known  to  prophecy,  to 
the  Old  Testament  and  to  the  New,  in  the 
broad  and  generalized  sense  of  "the  kingdoms  of 
this  world,"  whose  prince  and  god  is  Satan  ;  to 
which  kingdoms  "  the  kingdom  of  God,"  or 
"  kingdom  of  heaven,"  as  it  is  so  constantly  called 
by  our  Saviour,  and  especially  in  His  unexplained 
parables,  is,  with  such  antithetical  emphasis,  opposed ; 
and  if  Israel,  with  her  covenants,  is  scarcely  saved, 
where  will  the  great  unbelieving  and  anti-Christian 
world-powers  appear,  when  God  makes  up  His  account 
and  has  His  final  controversy  with  "the  nations?" 
"  The  gods  of  the  nations  are  idols."  They  can 
only  apostatize  from  their  own  chosen  gods,  which 
alas!  "the  sure  word  of  prophecy"  assures  us 
they  never  will,  certainly  until  the  end  of  their  own 
times,  under  the  present  dispensation  ;  when,  but  not 
till  then,  "the  kingdoms  of  this  world  and  the  glory 
of  them,"  with  which  Satan  tempted  Christ  in  vain, 
"shall  become  the  sovereignty  of  our  Lord  and  of  His 
Christ,  and  He  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever."  They 
may  in  their  dreams  baptize,  in  solemn  mockery,  with 
their  own  unholy  baptism,  the   stately  image   which 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  35 

Nebuchadnezzar  saw  in  his  dream,  and  call  it 
Christendom,  and  call  themselves  Christian  nations, 
Christian  legs  of  iron,  and  Christian  feet  and  toes  of 
iron  mixed  with  miry  clay,  but,  for  all  that,  God  will 
not  be  mocked.  The  interpretation  of  the  dream  is 
sure.  God's  destroying  vengeance  is  sure.  "  In 
the  days  of  these  kings  shall  the  God  of  heaven  set 
up  a  kingdom  which  shall  never  be  destined  ;  and 
the  kingdom  shall  not  be  left  to  other  people,  but  it 
shall  break  in  pieces  and  consume  all  these  kingdoms, 
and  it  shall  stand  forever."  The  unbelieving 
'•kingdoms  of  the  world  "  may  profess  Christianity, 
but  the}T  will  not  apostatize  from  their  own  chosen 
gods;  may  array  themselves  in  the  livery  of  the  angels 
of  light,  and  seek  to  be  as  gods,  as  Satan  promised 
them  they  should  be ,  but  they  will  not  apostatize. 
They  may  profess,  and  seek  to  dignify  themselves  by 
the  name  of,  Christianity,  but  professing  Christianity 
is  not  vital  Christianity.  To  profess  Christianity  is 
not  to  be  born  again.  The  professing  Christian 
Church  may,  like  the  professing  Jewish  Church, 
apostatize ;  it  will  apostatize ;  but  they  will  not 
apostatize  from  their  gods. 

This  great  disparity,  this  might}^  antagonism,  of 
moral  forces — a  little  remnant,  constituting  the  elect 
and  holy  nation  on  the  one  hand,  the  great  mass  of 
mankind,  or,  as  the  apostle  says,  "  the  whole  world 
lying  in  wickedness,"  on  the  other;  the  rightful  but 
rejected  Sovereign  of  the  world  on  the  one  hand,  its 
usurping,  but  preferred  and  accepted  sovereign  cm 
the  other  ;  the  powers  of  light  on  the  one  hand,  the 
powers  of  darkness  on  the  other;  the  Great  Deliverer 
on  the  one  hand,  the  great  destroyer  on  the  other; 
Christ  on  the  one  hand,  antichrists  many,  to  the 
final  Antichrist  on  the  other,  has  always  existed, 
and  now  exists,  and  will  continue  to  exist,  until  the 
present  evil  dispensation  is  ended,  or,  which  is  the 
same  thing,  so  long  as  the  New-Testament  revelation 
truly  represents  the  moral  character  and  condition 
of  mankind,  is  applicable  to  it,  and  intended  for  it. 


36  ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS. 

]N~ext  in  importance  to  the  holy  nation,  in  the 
discussion  of  our  theme,  is  the  prophetic  history  of 
the  Jewish  nation,  past,  present  and  to  come,  as  re- 
corded in  the  prophetic  Scriptures. 

This  nation  demands  our  special  attention,  not  only 
because  they  are  God's  chosen  and  peculiar  people; 
the  central  people  of  the  earth  in  His  plan  of  moral 
government;  towards  whom  the  course  of  His 
holy  providence  among  the  affairs  of  men  always 
tends,  and  around  whom  all  history  revolves ;  not 
only  because  they  are  the  seed,  through  whom 
alone  God  has  appointed  that  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  shall  ultimately  be  blessed,  and  without  whose 
intervention  and  ultimate  conversion,  according  to 
His  appointed  method,  and  in  His  Own  ap- 
pointed way,  the  nations  of  the  Gentiles  have  no 
promised  ground  of  hope  ;  and  not  only  because 
they  have  been,  and  are  still  to  be,  more  severely 
chastised  in  the  heat  of  His  great  anger,  and  in  the 
furnace  of  His  great  wrath,  than  any  other  nation; 
and  because  they  are  to  be  correspondingly  exalted, 
when,  in  wrath  remembering  mercy,  He  shall  redeem 
His  covenants  with  their  fathers,  and  avenge  Him- 
self upon  their  foes,  and  bring  them  to  repentance, 
and  forgive  their  sins,  and  set  them  on  high  in  honor 
and  blessing  above  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  ;  but 
because  also,  Avhich  more  especially  concerns  our 
present  theme,  it  was  to  them  that  the  prophetic 
parables  of  our  Saviour  were  personally  addressed, 
and  for  reasons,  as  our  Saviour  Himself  informs  us 
(Matt,  xiii,  10-16),  especially  adapted  to  the  circum- 
stances of  their  moral  condition,  or,  rather,  to  their 
total  want  of  right  moral  understanding,  to  the 
judicial  hardness  and  insensibility  of  their  hearts,  at 
the  time  when  they  were  spoken. 

In  our  proposed  review  of  Israel's  prophetic  history, 
we  shall,  if  we  mistake  not,  arrive  at  the  following 
results  or  conclusions  : — 

1.  That  the  prophetic  history  of  Israel  includes 
the  whole  of  three  distinct  dispensations,  or  alwveq  ; 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  37 

namely,  the  past  or  Mosaic,  the  present  or  Christian, 
and  the  future,  or  millennial. 

2.  That  the  particular  dispensation  referred  to  in 
any  particular  prophecy,  or  class  of  prophecies,  is,  as 
a  general  rule,  clearly  distinguishable. 

3.  AYe  shall  arrive  at  a  clear  Scriptural  knowledge 
of  the  moral  condition  of  the  Jewish  nation,  at  the 
conjunction,  ra  reXy  rd»  alcowv,  of  these  several 
dispensations:  at  the  conjunction,  first,  of  the 
Mosaic  and  Christian  dispensations,  when  parabolic 
prophecy,  as  a  distinct  and  customaiy  form  of 
prophecy,  began  first  to  be  employed  ;  and  at  the 
conjunction,  secondly,  of  the  Christian  and  mil- 
lennial dispensations,  when  the  parabolic  and  all 
other  prophetic  judgments  against  Israel  will  be  ful- 
filled; whenceforward  millennial  prophecy  opens  the 
glorious  vista  of  Israel's  millennial  future  to  our 
view ;  in  which  gloiy  "  the  residue  of  the  Gentiles," 
according  to  the  promise,  will  share. 

4.  We  shall  arrive  at  equally  clear  proof  that  the 
past,  or  Mosaic,  dispensation  was  to  Israel,  as  a 
nation,  a  disciplinary;  or  probationary,  dispensation  ; 
that  the  present,  or  Christian,  dispensation  is  to 
Israel  a  judicial,  or  penal,  as  it  is  to  the  Gentile  na- 
tions a  probationary,  dispensation ;  Israel  remaining, 
according  to  the  covenants  of  wrath,  in  ner  sins  and 
judicial  blindness  until  its  close  ;  and  that  the  future, 
or  millennial,  dispensation  will  be  to  Israel  a  dispen- 
sation of  everlasting  peace  and  repose,  and  honor 
and  blessing,  and  glory  and  exaltation,  "  above  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth,"  according  to  the  covenants 
of  blessing  ;  when,  but  not  till  then,  the  covenants 
which  God  sware  unto  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  that  in  their  seed  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
should  be  blessed,  shall  be  gloriously  fulfilled  ;  when, 
but  not  till  then,  the  Gentile  nations,  their  proud 
spirit  humbled,  and  their  proud  Babels  fallen,  shall 
not  only  acknowledge  and  proclaim  that  Israel  is  the 
seed  which  the  Lord  hath  blessed,  but  shall  hasten 
to  her  light  and  to  the  brightness  of  her  rising  with 


38  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

songs  and  everlasting  joy,  bringing  their  tribute  from 
afar,  and  their  offerings  from  the  ends  of  the  earth  ; 
when,  but  not  till  then,  the  Theocracy  which  Israel 
forfeited  by  her  sins,  and  of  which,  in  the  multitude 
of  her  iniquities  and  transgressions,  she  was  unwor- 
thy, shall  be  gloriously  restored,  and,  the  warfare  of 
the  elect  Church  militant  and  the  predicted  overturn- 
ing and  overturning  and  overturning  of  the  unbe- 
lieving  nations  being  ended,  the  Root  and  Offspring 
of  David,  the  Bright  and  Morning  Star,  shall  arise 
and  shine,  and  sit  upon  the  throne  of  His  father 
David  in  the  manifested,  triumphant  and  covenanted 
glory  both  of  His  Davidic  and  spiritual  kingdom, 
and  reign  forever  and  ever. 

Such  is  the  divine  order  of  the  dispensations,  pro- 
bationary, judicial,  and  millennial ;  such  the  appointed 
method  of  God's  holy  government,  and  the  appointed 
course  of  God's  holy  providence,  by  which  He  will 
at  last  restore  apostate  Israel,  and,  through  Israel, 
all  mankind  to  their  original  likeness  and  their 
original  allegiance  to  Himself.  Such  is  the  prophetic 
record  ;  and  whosoever  leaves  it  out  of  account,  or 
adds  to  it,  or  takes  from  it,  in  dealing  with  the 
secret,  but,  to  the  eye  of  faith,  revealed  problems  of 
man's  spiritual  being  and  destiny,  or  seeks  by  any 
method  of  man's  wisdom,  to  climb  up  some  other 
way  to  their  solution,  whether  Church  .or  State  be 
the  theme  of  his  discourse,  at  the  least  that  can  be 
said,  darkens  counsel  by  words  without  knowledge. 
But  the  record  is  before  us.     Let  it  speak  for  itself. 

The  whole  future  of  Israel's  prophetic  history,  with 
its  interwoven  prophetic  history  of  the  Gentile  na- 
tions as  her  oppressors,  was  foretold,  in  outline,  by 
Closes,  the  founder  of  the  nation  and  its  prophet 
without  a  peer  (Deut.  xxxiv,  10),  when,  at  the  close 
of  their  wanderings  in  the  wilderness,  they  were  about 
to  enter  into  the  land,  whither,  for  forty  weary  and 
guilty  3Tears,  they  had  been  going  to  possess  it.  These 
prophecies  (Deut.  xxviii-xxx),  including  the  dying 
ode  of  Moses,  were  his  parting  message,  his  last  will 


ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  39 

and  testament,  to  the  sinful  and  erring  nation,  the 
vox  cycnea  of  the  departing  seer.  They  are  a  pro- 
phetic mirror,  revealing  in  general  and,  sometimes, 
particular  outline,  the  whole  future  history  of  the 
nation,  down  to  the  eud  of  the  dispensations  which 
are  revealed;  down  to  that  utmost  limit  of  time,  be- 
yond which  inspired  prophecy,  in  respect  to  man's 
earthly  condition  and  estate,  stretches  not  its  ken  ; 
down  to  that  utmost  limit  of  time,  where  the  unre- 
vealed  dispensations  begin,  where  the  Divine  Revela- 
tion merges  itself  in  those  of  ages  of  ages,  those 
aiw'szq  ~a>v  alwvatv,  by  which  in  the  Holy  Scriptures 
the  eternity  of  God  is  so  often  described.  The 
alternatives  of  blessing  and  cursing,  presented  to 
the  nation  by  these  prophecies,  were  made  to  stand 
out  in  impending  relief,  even  as  Ebal,  the  mount  of 
cursing,  and  Gerizim,  the  mount  of  blessing,  then 
stood  before  their  natural  eyes.  The  whole  future 
history  of  Israel,  its  judicial  blindness  in  the  nearer 
future,  and  its  final  conversion  and  exaltation  in  the 
more  remote,  was  wrapped  up  in  these  prophecies,  as 
the  mighty  oak  is  wrapped  up  in  the  little  acorn  we 
tread  beneath  our  feet.  However  familiar  our  readers 
may  be  with  these  prophecies,  we  hope  they  will  re- 
peruse  the  selections  we  make  from  them,  for  the  sake 
of  their  importance  to  our  discussion. 

"  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  thou  shalt  hearken 
diligently  unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  ob- 
serve and  to  do  all  his  commandments  which  I  com- 
mand thee  this  da}7,  that  the  Lord. thy  God  will  set 
thee  on  high  above  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  ;  and 
all  these  blessings  shall  come  on  thee,  and  overtake 
thee,  if  thou  shalt  hearken  unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord 
thy  God.  Blessed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  city,  and 
blessed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  field.  Blessed  shall  be 
the  fruit  of  thy  body,  and  the  fruit  of  thy  ground, 
and  the  fruit  of  thy  cattle,  the  increase  of  thy  kine, 
and  the  flocks  of  thy  sheep.  Blessed  shall  be  thy 
basket  and  thy  store.  Blessed  shalt  thou  be  when 
thou   comest   in,  and   blessed  shalt   thou   be  when 


40  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

thou  goest  out.  The  Lord  shall  cause  thine  enemies 
that  rise  up  against  thee  to  be  smitten  before  thy 
face ;  they  shall  come  out  against  thee  one  way,  and 
flee  before  thee  seven  ways.  The  Lord  shall  com- 
mand the  blessing  upon  thee  in  thy  storehouse,  and 
in  all  that  thou  setlest  thine  hand  unto ;  and  he  shall 
bless  thee  in  the  land  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee. 
The  Lord  shall  establish  thee  a  holy  people  unto  him- 
self, as  he  hath  sworn  unto  thee,  if  thou  shalt  keep 
the  commandments  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  walk 
in  his  wa}^s  ;  and  all  people  of  the  earth  shall  see  that 
thou  art  called  by  the  name  of  the  Lord;  and  they 
shall  be  afraid  of  thee.  And  the  Lord  shall  make 
thee  plenteous  in  goods,  in  the  fruit  of  thy  body,  and 
in  the  fruit  of  thy  cattle,  and  in  the  fruit  of  thy 
ground,  in  the  land  which  the  Lord  sware  unto  thy 
fathers  to  give  thee.  The  Lord  shalt  open  unto  thee 
his  good  treasure,  the  heaven  to  give  thee  rain  into 
thy  land  in  his  season,  and  to  bless  all  the  work  of 
thine  hand  ;  and  thou  shalt  lend  unto  many  nations, 
and  thou  shalt  not  borrow.  And  the  Lord  shall 
make  thee  the  head,  and  not  the  tail ;  and  thou  shalt 
be  above  only,  and  thou  shalt  not  be  beneath  ;  if  that 
thou  hearken  unto  the  commandments  of  the  Lord 
thy  God,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  to  observe 
and  to  do  them,  and  shalt  not  go  aside  from  any  of 
the  words  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  to  the 
right  hand,  or  to  the  left,  to  go  after  other  gods  to 
serve  them. 

"  But  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  thou  will  not  hearken 
unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  observe  to  do 
all  his  commandments  and  his  statutes  which  I  com- 
mand thee  this  day ;  that  all  these  curses  shall  come 
upon  thee,  and  overtake  thee.  Cursed  shalt  thou  be 
in  the  cit}7,  and  cursed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  field. 
Cursed  shalt  be  thy  basket  and  thy  store.  Cursed 
shall  be  the  fruit  of  thy  body,  and  the  fruit  of  thy 
land,  the  increase  of  thy  kine,  and  the  flocks  of  thy 
sheep.  Cursed  shalt  thou  be  when  thou  comest  in, 
and  cursed  shalt  thou  be  when  thou  goest  out.     The 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  41 

Lord  shall  send  upon  thee  cursing,  vexation,  and  re- 
buke, in  all  that  thou  settest  thine  hand  unto  for  to 
do,  until  thou  be  destroyed,  and   until  thou  perish 
quickly;    because  of   the  wickedness  of  thy  doings, 
whereby  thou    hast  forsaken   me.     The    Lord    shall 
make   the  pestilence  cleave  unto  thee,  until   he  hath 
consumed  thee  from  otf  the  land,  whither  thou  goest 
to  possess  it.     The  Lord  shall  smite  thee  with  a  con- 
sumption, and  with  a  fever,  and  with  an  inflammation, 
and   with   an  extreme  burning,  and  with   the  sword, 
and  with  blasting,  and  with  mildew;   and  the}r  shall 
pursue    thee    until   thou    perish.     And    thy    heaven 
which  is  over  thy  head  shall  be  brass,  and  the  earth 
that  is   under  thee  shall  be  iron.     The  Lord   shall 
make  the  rain  of  thy  land   powder  and  dust;    from 
heaven    shall   it  come  down  upon  thee,  till  thou  be 
destroyed.     The  Lord  shall  cause  thee  to  be  smitten 
before   thine   enemies ;    thou   shalt   go  out  one  way 
against  them,  and  flee  seven  ways  before  them  ;  and 
shalt  be  removed  into  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth. 
The  Lord   shall   smite  thee  with  madness,  and  with 
blindness,  and  with  astonishment  of  heart ;  and  thou 
shalt    grope  at   noon-day,  as    the  blind    gropeth   in 
darkness,  and   thou  shalt  not  prosper  in   thy  ways  ; 
and  thou  shalt  be  only  oppressed  and  spoiled  ever- 
more, and  no  man  shall  save  thee ;  thou  shalt  be  only 
oppressed   and  crushed  alway.     And  thou  shalt  be- 
come an    astonishment,  a   proverb,   and    a   byword 
among  all  nations  whither  the  Lord  shall  lead  thee. 
The  stranger  that  is  within  thee  shall  get  up  above 
thee  very  high,  and  thou  shalt  come  down  very  low. 
He  shall   be  the  head,  and    thou   shalt  be  the  tail. 
Thou  shalt  serve  thine  enemies,  which  the  Lord  shall 
send   against   thee,  in   hunger,  and  in  thirst,  and  in 
nakedness,  and   in  want  of  all  things,  and   he  shall 
put  a  yoke  of  iron  upon  thy  neck,  until  he  have  de- 
stroyed thee.     The  Lord  shall  bring  a  nation  against 
thee  from  far,  from  the  end  of  the  earth,  as  swift  as 
the  eagle  flieth  ;  a  nation  whose  tongue  thou  shalt  not 
understand  ;  a  nation  of  fierce  countenance,  which 
•l 


42  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

shall  not  regard  the  person  of  the  old,  nor  show  favor 
to  the  young:  and  he  shall  eat  the  fruit  of  thy  cattle, 
and  the  fruit  oi'  thy  land,  until  thou  be  destroyed! 
which  also  shall  nut  leave  thee  either  corn,  or  oil,  or 
the  increase  of  thy  kine,  or  Hocks  of  thy  sheep,  until 
he  have  destined  thee.  And  he  shall  besiege  thee 
in  all  thy  gates,  until  thy  high  and  fenced  walls  come 
down,  wherein  thou  trustedst,  throughout  all  thy 
land  ;  and  he  shall  besiege  thee  in  all  thy  gates 
throughout  all  thy  land,  which  the  Lord  thy  God 
hath  o-iyen  thee.  And  thou  shalt  eat  the  fruit  of 
thine  own  body,  the  flesh  of  thy  sons  and  of  thy 
daughters,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  given  thee, 
in  the  siege,  and  in  the  straitness,  wherewith  thine 
enemies  shall  distress  thee.  And  j*e  shall  be 
plucked  from  off  the  land  whither  thou  goest  to 
possess  it :  and  the  Lord  shall  scatter  thee  among 
all  people,  from  the  one  end  of  the  earth  even  unto 
the  other ;  and  among  these  nations  shalt  thou  find 
no  ease,  neither  shall  the  sole  of  thy  foot  have  rest : 
but  the  Lord  shall  give  thee  there  a  trembling  heart, 
and  failing  of  eyes,  and  sorrow  of  mind,  and  thy  life 
shall  hang  in  doubt  before  thee." 

We  ask  the  attention  of  our  readers,  especially,  to 
the  incontestably  literal  character  of  these  predic- 
tions. They  were  all  prophecy  then.  They  are  all 
accomplished  facts  and  actual  history  now.  All  the 
world  knows  it  by  heart.  Their  literal  fulfilment  in 
the  past  is  attested  by  eye- witnesses  in  records  with- 
out number,  written  without  concert,  and  universally 
harmonious.  The  now  occurring  literal  fulfilment  of 
many  of  them  is  but  a  repetition  of  their  literal  ful- 
filment in  the  past,  and  a  faithful  record  in  advance 
of  their  no  less  literal  fulfilment  in  the  future,  "  till 
all  shall  be  fulfilled  ;"  or,  in  other  words  of  our  Sa- 
viour, "  until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  ful- 
filled." There  is  not  a  single  prediction,  in  this  long 
catalogue  of  prophecies,  that  has  not  been  justified  by 
the  event,  and,  in  the  case  of  the  most  of  them,  over 
and  over  aaain. 


ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  43 

Look,  for  instance,  at  the  prediction  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  by  the  Romans — to  whom  exposi- 
tors and    historians   for    the  most    part   agree,  that 
the    "nation    of    fierce    countenance"  refers — which 
took  place  more  than  fifteen  hundred  years  after  the 
prediction  was  uttered.     Where,  in  the  pages  of  any 
historian,   will   you   find    a  more  truthful,   or   more 
graphic  and  vivid  account  of  its  actual,  detailed  and 
quivering  horrors,  than  in  these  few  words  of  Moses? 
where  a  description  so  terrible,  and  yet  so  literally 
truthful,  of  Israel's  whole  suffering  future  ever  since  ; 
uttered  by  Moses  before  one  of  the  prophetic  acts  of 
disobedience  had  been  committed,  or  one  of  the  pro- 
phetic judgments   had  been  inflicted,  or  one  of  the 
prophetic  woes   had  been  endured,  which  these  pro- 
phecies with  such  wonderful  accuracy  foretell  ?     No 
uninspired  historian  of  the  past  ever  described  with 
more  faithful  and  literal  exactness  what  has  happened, 
than  this  inspired  prophet  foretold  what  would  hap- 
pen, never  failing  of  the  exact  fact,  as  all   history 
confirms,  in    so  much  as  a  single  particular.     The 
future  was  even  clearer  to  his  eye,  though  sweeping 
the  vast  and  un revealed  future  of  other  dispensations 
than   his  own,  than  the  past  can  be  to  ours,  though 
confined  to  much  narrower  fields.     His  rapt  and  un- 
clouded vision  could  not  err.     Our  clouded  and   un- 
inspired vision,  even  with  the  best  lights  of  history 
before  us,  often  errs. 

What  a  commentary  upon  the  wickedness  and  per- 
verseuess  of  the  nation,  then  just  entering,  under 
such  glorious  auspices,  and  under  the  guidance  of 
such  a  heaven-inspired  leader,  upon  its  early  man- 
hood, was  the  necessity  of  these  predictions  of  the 
consequences  of  its  sins — always  the  last  resort  with 
the  hopelessly  incorrigible — as  if,  indeed,  it  would 
surely  be  guilty  of  them  !  Already  do  we  seem  to 
see  the  thick  darkness  of  the  judicial  blindness,  pro- 
nounced upon  them  seven  hundred  and  fifty  3-ears 
afterwards,  settling  down  with  its  baleful  shadows 
over  their  foolish  hearts. 


44  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

And  yet  Moses,  spanning  the  mighty  arch  of  the 
coming  dispensations,  foresaw,  through  the  faith  and 
endurance  of  a  chosen  and  holy  remnant,  which 
would  always  be  preserved,  the  possible  recovery  and 
salvation  of  the  nation  at  last ;  when,  as  another 
prophet  foretells,  they  shall,  at  His  second  coming, 
behold  their  King  in  His  terror  and  His  beauty,  and 
acknowledge  Him,  even  in  the  latter  days,  as  their 
bleeding  but  victorious  Messiah.  Five  times  in  the 
dying  ode  of  Moses  (Delitzsch  calls  our  attention  to 
the  number)  is  Christ  referred  to  as  the  Rock  of 
Israel ;  the  Rock  alike  of  her  vengeance  and  of  her 
salvation ;  the  Rock  upon  which  she  will  continue  to 
fall  and  be  broken  in  pieces,  until  her  evil  course  is 
run  ;  the  Rock  which  will  then  fall  upon  her  Gentile 
foes  and  grind  them  to  powder ;  the  Rock,  however, 
in  which  she  will  hide  herself  at  last.  How  beautiful 
the  symbol,  borrowed  from  the  granite  clilfs  of  Sinai; 
descending  through  the  wanderings  of  the  children 
of  Israel  in  the  wilderness ;  through  the  evil  hours 
of  their  probationary,  and  the  now  far-spent  night 
of  their  judicial  dispensation  ;  through  the  wrecks  of 
their  own  and  so  many  other  buried  empires ; 
through  the  psalms  and  hymns  of  so  many  genera- 
tions !  the  spiritual  beauty  and  consolation  of  which 
has  been  so  sweetly  caught  and  breathed  forth  by 
one  of  our  Christian  poets : — 

''Rock  of  ages  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee;"  etc. 

In  passing  from  Moses  to  Isaiah,  who  stands  mid- 
way between  Moses  and  Christ,  we  approach  a  new 
era  or  dispensation  in  the  prophetic  history  of  Israel. 
Her  probationary  dispensation  is  about  to  end,  and  a 
long  and  dark  and  dreary  night  of  ra3dess  gloom  is 
about  to  settle  down  upon  the  guilt}''  nation ;  a  night 
upon  which  no  day-star  will  arise,  to  chase  away  its 
heaviness  and  anguish,  until  the  close  of  another 
dispensation,  of  the  present  Gentile  dispensation, 
and  the  coming-in  of  Israel's  millennial  dispensation. 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  45 

It  is  the  night  of  Israel's  judicial  blindness,  judicial 
condemnation  and  judicial  shame. 

The  prophecies  of  Moses,  which  we  have  cited,  in- 
troduced, or  completed  the  introduction,  of  a  proba- 
tionary dispensation  to  Israel.  Accordingly,  as  has 
been  seen,  they  were  expressed  in  an  alternative 
form.  An  alternative  of  blessing  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  cursing  on  the  other,  was  presented  to  the 
nation.  An  open  choice  was  before  her.  Do  this, 
and  all  the  blessings  of  the  covenants  shall  be  yours. 
Do  that,  and  they  shall  all  be  taken  from  you. 

Notwithstanding  these  prophecies  of  Moses  wrere 
thus  probationary  in  their  aspect  and  character,  they 
were  }ret  full  of  apprehension,  lest  Israel  should 
reject  the  offered  blessing,  and  choose  the  offered 
curse;  and  the  apprehension  was  justified  by  the 
event.  She  did  choose  the  offered  curse,  and  she  is 
now,  under  the  prophetic  mission  of  Isaiah,  about  to 
reap  the  judicial  consequences  of  her  evil  choice. 
Since  the  time  of  Moses,  she  had  been  blessed  with 
seasons  of  great  national  prosperity  and  splendor. 
Nevertheless  she  heaped  rebellion  upon  rebellion, 
and  apostasv  upon  apostasy,  until  now,  at  last,  nearly 
all  the  prophetic  judgments  enumerated  by  Moses 
had  come  upon  her  and  overtaken  her.  and  were 
about  to  utterly  destroy  her  national  independence, 
and  annihilate  her  national  glory,  until  all  things 
written  in  the  law  should  be  fulfilled  upon  her,  and 
the  bitter  cup  of  the  self-chosen  curse  should  be 
drained  to  its  dregs. 

Hitherto,  even  in  all  her  sins,  Israel,  as  a  nation, 
had  leaned,  or  professed  to  lean,  upon  the  arm  of 
Jehovah  alone.  But  now,  under  Ahaz,  the  kingdom 
of  Judah  (unmindful  of  the  calamities  which  had 
come  upon  her  sister  kingdom  of  Israel,  for  casting 
of  Jehovah,  and  calling  in  the  aid  of  Egypt)  called 
in  herself,  in  like  manner,  against  her  sister  king- 
dom, the  aid  of  Assyria,  and  from  that  hour  Jehovah 
was  cast  off  by  her  ;  and  Jehovah,  in  turn, 
cast  her  off,  and  delivered  her  over  to  her  enemies. 


46  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

In  that  hour  she  forged  the  first  link  in  the  chain  of 
her  Assyrian  oppression, in  that  chain  of  oppression, 
which,  beginning  with  Babylon,  ended  not  with 
Home,  nor  will  end,  until  all  that  is  written 
against  the  ungodly  nation  by  these  two  great  uni- 
versal prophets  of  Israel,  Moses  and  Isaiah,  shall  be 
fulfilled  upon  her.  From  the  hour  that  Israel,  irreso- 
lutely yielding  to  every  temptation  of  idolatry, 
melted  her  golden  ear-rings  into  a  golden  calf  in  the 
wilderness,  and  her  incensed  leader  brake  in  pieces 
the  tables  of  stone,  on  which  was  inscribed,  in  the 
hand-writing  of  Jehovah,  first  of  all,  "  Thou  shalt 
have  no  other  Gods  before  Me,"  down  to  the  time 
when  Ahaz  despoiled  the  temple  of  the  Lord  of  its 
silver  and  gold  for  a  present  to  the  king  of  Assyria, 
and  set  up  the  worship  of  Moleeh,  the  savage  god 
of  the  Ammonites,  upon  the  heights  of  Olivet  and 
under  the  very  walls  of  Jerusalem,  Israel's  whole 
career,  especially  since  the  last  days  of  Solomon, 
had  been  one  of  almost  unceasing  rebellion  and  idola- 
try. 

W  hat  crowning  sin,  what  crowning  act  of  guilt, 
could  she  now  commit,  when  she  had  thus  utterly  cast 
off  the  Most  High  God  of  Israel,  in  Whom  alone  her 
whole  national  life  and  being  had  consisted  hitherto, 
to  render  her  apostasy  more  complete,  in  thought,  or 
word,  or  deed  ?  If  this  sin  was  not  sufficient  to  call 
down  upon  her  the  judicial  wrath  of  heaven,  what 
sin  would  be  sufficient  to  call  it  down?  If  she 
merited  not  judicial  condemnation  now,  when  would 
she  merit  it?  True,  if  she  now  rejected  and  cast  off 
God  the  Father,  she  might,  as  she  did,  after  another 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  years,  reject  and  cast  off  God 
the  Son,  and  God  the  Spirit,  as  she  also  did.  But 
this  would  be  no  new  offense,  but  only  a  repetition  of 
the  same  offense  against  the  same  eternal  and  triune 
Godhead,  and  therefore  no  reason  why  her  judicial 
sentence  for  the  original  offense  should  be  postponed. 
How  otherwise  than  by  her  judicial  condemnation 
now,  could  the  Divine  justice,  according  even  to  the 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  47 

most  ordinary  and  limited  ideas  of  human  justice,  be 
vindicated  and  maintained  ?  How  otherwise  could 
any  government,  or  theory  of  government,  human  or 
divine,  stand  for  a  single  hour?  No!  for  a  period 
longer  than  the  lifetime  of  an}' other  nation  before  or 
since,  a  period  of  nearly  a  thousand  years,  Israel  had 
been  put  upon  her  probation,  and  her  probation  had 
now  proved  a  failure.  Every  recourse  of  the  divine 
goodness  and  every  chastisement  of  the  divine 
wrath  had  been  exhausted  upon  her  in  vain.  No  na- 
tion had  ever  enjoyed  opportunities  so  exalted.  No 
nation  had  ever  thrown  them  so  entirely  away.  The 
foundations  of  no  nation  were  ever  laid  on  such 
glorious  and  indestructible  covenants.  No  nation  was 
ever  established  and  upheld  by  such  almight}'  power  ; 
with  the  infinite  fulness  of  God  pledged  beforehand 
to  supply  all  its  human  needs  and  deficiencies.  No 
nation  was  ever  regulated  and  guided  in  its  whole 
national  life  and  being  and  career  by  such  infinite 
wisdom,  or  watched  over  in  such  infinite  love,  or 
borne  with  in  its  sins  so  tenderly  or  so  long,  or  with 
a  compassion  so  divine,  or  forgiven  so  many  times: 
the  wrath  of  God  wrestled  down  for  it  by  the  heroic 
Jacob  in  advance ;  God  dwelling  ever  in  it  in  spite 
of  its  sins,  and  walking  in  it,  and  a  God  unto  it  as 
He  was  not  God  of  any  other  people,  that  they  might 
be  to  Him  His  people  above  all  the  people  of  the 
earth  ;  their  land  the  most  favored  of  all  lands,  in 
respect  to  the  independence  of  its  natural  position, 
(yet  standing  midway  in  the  highway  of  the  conti- 
nents) its  beauty  of  configuration,  and  the  various  and 
teeming  fruitfulness  of  its  soil ;  with  no  arm  of  flesh, 
but  with  Jehovah "s  almighty  arm,  to  lean  upon.  But, 
alas  !  she  yielded  to  the  great  adversary  of  Jehovah  in 
His  holy  government  over  a  fallen  world,  and  fell.  She 
had  now,  when  Ahaz  reigned  and  Isaiah  prophesied, 
utterly  cast  off  Jehovah.  He  had  never  ceased  to]call 
to  her.  She  had  never  ceased  to  refuse.  He  had  never, 
ceased  to  stretch  out  His  hand  to  her.  She  had  never 
erased  to  disregard  it.  There  was  no  other  god  that  she 


48  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

would  not  have  before  the  most  High  God  of  Israel, 
the  one  ever-living  and  true  God.  And  thus,  by  her 
own  mad  and  suicidal  folly,  she  put  an  end  to  her 
probation  ;  and  nothing  now  remains  but  to  render 
the  verdict,  and  pass  the  sentence  of  a  holy  and 
offended  God  upon  her. 

It  is  at  this  point,  strictly  speaking,  that  Israel's 
probationary  dispensation  ends,  and  her  judicial  dis- 
pensation begins ;  though  we  have  before  spoken  of 
these  dispensations,  in  their  relations  to  Israel,  in 
somewhat  more  general  terms.  Up  to  this  point 
Israel's  past  history  had  been  the  history  of  a  proba- 
tionary dispensation.  From  this  point  we  enter  upon, 
and  are  to  contemplate  only,  her  judicial  dispensation, 
until,  through  the  faith  and  endurance  of  the  holy 
remnant,  she  reaches,  at  the  close  of  her  judicial,  her 
millennial,  dispensation.  Accordingly  we  find  that 
from  this  point  onward,  the  predictions  of  the  pro- 
phets of  Israel  no  longer  assume  a  probationary 
aspect  and  character ;  presenting  to  the  nation  an 
alternative  of  blessing  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  curs- 
ing on  the  other ;  but  that  the}^  are  judicial  only, 
whenever  they  refer  to  any  point  or  period  of  time 
preceding  the  close  of  her  judicial,  and  the  com- 
mencement of  her  millennial,  dispensation  ;  and  mil- 
lennial only,  when  the}r  relate  to  a  subsequent  period 
of  time  ;  the  second  advent  of  her  Messiah  constitu- 
ting, as  we  shall  presently  see,  the  boundary  between 
the  two  dispensations. 

Henceforward,  prophecy,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  ac- 
tual events  and  results  in  Israel's  future  history,  no 
longer  expresses  itself  in  an  alternative,  but  only  in 
the  most  absolute  form,  and  in  the  most  absolute 
terms.  It  no  longer  contemplates  any  possible  con- 
tingency, or  any  doubtful  and  uncertain  results,  in 
respect  to  the  future  moral  character  and  conduct 
of  the  nation.  The  guilty  nation  has  made  its 
choice,  and  its  choice  has  been  accepted,  sealed  and 
registered  against  it  in  the  courts  of  heaven,  and  has 
assumed  all  the  force  and  authority  of  a  divine  de- 


ISRAEL'S   JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  49 

cree.  Henceforward,  it  is  the  judicial  wrath  of  God 
only  that  awaits  her,  and  is  predicted  against  her, 
until  she  reaches  the  end  of  her  present  judicial  dis- 
pensation. Of  this  character  are  all  the  prophecies 
of  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel,  and  Daniel, 
and  of  all  the  minor  and  later  prophets,  which  relate 
to  Israel  under  her  present  judicial  dispensation.  Of 
this  character  are  all  the  prophecies  of  our  Saviour, 
which  relate  to  the  future  moral  histoiy  of  the  nation, 
including  His  public  and  unexplained  parables,  which 
are  thus  not  prophetic  only,  but  judicially  prophetic 
also.  Thus,  for  example,  our  Saviour  expressed  him- 
self in  clearly  judicial  terms,  and  anticipated  no  pos- 
sibly contingent  or  conditional,  or  twofold,  or  alter- 
native results,  when,  in  His  last  public  discourse, 
He  gave  to  the  guilty  nation  the  prophetic  command, 
"  Fill  ye  up  then  the  measure  of  your  fathers  ;  ye  ser- 
pents, }*e  generation  of  vipers,  how  can  ye  escape 
the  damnation  of  hell?"  or  when  He  no  less  pro- 
phetical^ declared  to  the  guilt}^  nation,  "  Ye  shall  fall 
by  the  edge  of  the  sword,  and  shall  be  led  away  cap- 
tive into  all  nations;  and  Jerusalem  shall  be  trodden 
down  of  the  Gentiles,  until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles 
be  fulfilled." 

It  was  Moses  who  inaugurated  the  era,  or  dispen- 
sation, of  probationary  prophecy.  It  was  Isaiah,  the 
statesman-like  and  fiery  prophet  of  Jerusalem,  with 
whom  the  era  of  probationary  prophecy  ended,  and 
the  dispensation  of  judicial  prophecy  began.  There 
is  not  to  be  found  a  prophecy  in  Isaiah,  relating  to 
the  actual  future  of  Israel's  history,  that  is  suscepti- 
ble of  an  alternative  construction  or  application;  that 
is  not  clearly  and  absolutely  either  judicial  in  its 
character  on  the  one  hand,  or  millennial  in  its  char- 
acter on  the  other,  according  to  the  particular  dis- 
pensation referred  to,  or  described.  Isaiah,  next  to 
Moses,  is  the  universal  prophet  of  Israel.  His  pro- 
phecies embrace  the  nation  in  all  its  tribes,  and  all  its 
generations,  and  in  both  of  its  coming  dispensations. 
He  is  the  great  prophet  of  Israel  outcast  and  dis- 


50  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

persed,  and  of  Israel  restored  ;  of  Israel's  present 
shame,  and  of  Israel's  future  glory;  of  Israel  trodden- 
down,  and  of  Israel  lifted  up.  As  we  have  already 
said,  these  two  classes  of  prophecy  can  alwa3rs  be 
clearly  distinguished  from  one  another. 

But  especially  do  we  love  to  contemplate  Isaiah, 
as  the  prophet,  pre-eminently,  of  Israel's  millennium, 
and  through  Israel,  of  the  millennium  of  all  mankind. 
Indeed,  he  is  the  prophet,  especially,  as  his  name  in 
the  Hebrew  imports,  of  "  Israel's  salvation."  There 
is  nothing  in  inspired  prophecy  that  transcends  in 
touching  beauty,  or  in  lofty  splendor,  the  millennial 
visions  of  Isaiah; 

"  From  harmony  to  harmony, 
Through  all  the  compass  of  the  notes  they  run." 

Of  such  and  so  great  consequence  to  the  moral 
and  spiritual  destiny  of  Israel,  and,  through  Israel, 
of  all  mankind,  was  the  terrible  apostasy  and  fall  of 
this  ancient,  and  sacred,  and  covenanted,  but  unfaith- 
ful nation !    Thus  it  has  always  been,  and  always  will 
be;  with  nations  as  with  individuals;  and  Israel  is 
the  great  example.    A  nation  is  simply  a  name  which 
a  collection  of  individuals  asrree  with  common  con- 
sent  to  assume :  and  what  is  there  in  a  name,  be  it 
Jew   or    Gentile,     Greek  or    Roman,    European   or 
American,  that  can  change  the  moral  relations  and 
responsibilities  of  man  to  his   Creator,  or  lessen  his 
personal  accountability  ?     Can  any  number  of  indi- 
viduals,  by  binding     themselves     together    into   a 
nation,     however     skillfully    and     well    they    may 
strengthen    the    cords,   and    refine   and   perfect   the 
organism,    and   consolidate  the  national  unity  and 
individuality,   and    extend    the    national   resources, 
and    foster    the   national    pride,    and    heighten    the 
national  prestige,  that  cement  their  common  union, 
and  bind  them  together  as  one  man — all  which  was 
true  of  tie  Jewish  nation,  and  has,   at  one  time  or 
another,  been  true  of   all  the  great   nations  of  the 
earth — thus  escape   their  individual    accountability, 
either   singly,  or   as  a   people,  to   an   injured   and 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  51 

offended  God;  or  escape,  if  deserved,  His  judicial 
wrath  ?  Let  condemned  and  down-trodden  Israel 
answer.  Let  the  still  crumbling  ruins  of  BabyloD 
and  Persia  and  Greece  and  Rome  swell  the  mournful 
echo.  And  why  shall  the  present  or  future  sove- 
reignties of  the  earth  return  a  less  sad  response? 
We  know  from  prophecies,  which  we  shall  presently 
cite,  that  the}'  will  not. 

In  brief,  God's  method  is  simply  this.  He  leaves 
man  to  his  own  free  and  unrestrained  moral  choice ; 
to  choose  what  course  of  moral  conduct  he  will ; 
placing  before  him  in  His  holy  Word  and  in  the 
history  of  His  holy  providence  the  just,  legitimate 
and  certain  consequences  of  his  acts,  accordingly  as 
he  elects  and  pursues  one  course  of  moral  conduct  or 
another.  If  he  elects  and  pursues  a  sinful  course  of 
conduct,  and  hardens  himself  in  guilt,  and  steels  him- 
self against  repentance,  and  shuts  his  eyes,  and  his 
ears,  and  his  heart  to  every  method  which  reason,  and 
persuasion,  and  judgment,  and  mercy  can  devise  and 
interpose,  to  turn  him  from  his  evil  wa}Ts — all  which 
was  true  of  sinful  and  guilt}r  Israel  in  her  relations 
to  her  Heavenly  Father,  and  in  the  relations  of  her 
Heavenly  Father  to  her — the  loving  will  of  God  to- 
wards him  becomes  at  length  the  wrathful  will  of 
God,  into  which  His  loving  will  always  changes,  when 
obstinately  and  incorrigibly  resisted.  Then  ensues 
the  sentence  of  judicial  blindness.  Then,  the  self- 
hardened  sinner  becomes  the  judicial-condemned 
criminal.  Then,  the  judicial  and  peremptory  wrath 
of  God  supervenes  to  deliver  him  over  to  the  just 
consequences  of  his  own  acts,  his  own  self-chosen 
conduct :  to  believe  to  his  utter  ruin  and  confusion, 
the  miserable  lies  with  which  the  devil  has  cheated 
him,  and  with  which  he  has  cheated  himself;  and  bars 
the  door  of  repentance  against  him,  which  he  has  first 
closed  against  himself. 

Such  was  guilty  Israel,  when,  more  than  twenty- 
six  hundred  years  ago,  the  sentence  of  judicial  blind- 
ness, which  her  prophets   had   invoked  and  foretold, 


52  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

was  passed  upon  her.  Such  has  guilty  Israel  been 
ever  since,  abandoned  alike  of  God  and  man.  Thus 
does  sin  bring  upon  itself  its  own  punishment,  which 
is  the  wrath  of  God  excited  by  it.  With  what  hea- 
venly pathos  did  our  Saviour,  the  last  time  that  He 
wept  over  Jerusalem  in  the  presence  of  His  disciples, 
alluding  to  the  then  and  still  existing  execution  of 
the  fearful  sentence  of  Israel's  judicial  blindness,  with 
which  He  would  not  interfere,  however  much  He 
yearned  to  open  their  eyes,  exclaim:  "  If  thou  hadst 
known,  even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy  day,  the  things 
which  belong  unto  thy  peace !  but  now  they  are  hid 
from  thy  eyes." 

But  who  by  searching  can  find  out  the  great  mys- 
tery of  Israel's  judicial  blindness  ?  We  can  do  little 
more  than  recite  the  great  fact  itself  as  we  find  it  re- 
corded, and  such  other  Scripture  testimony  as  pro- 
perly relates  to  it. 

In  quoting  from  the  text  of  Isaiah,  we  shall  adopt 
the  translation  of  Delitzsch,  one  of  the  most  learned 
and  evangelical  Jews  of  our  own  day,  partly  because 
it  is  his  nation  whom  the  book  he  translates  con- 
demns, and  partly  because  of  the  critical  fulness  and 
fidelnVy  of  his  translation.  We  would  also  acknow- 
ledge our  indebtedness  to  the  same  expositor,  for 
many  valuable  suggestions  in  connection  with  the 
text. 

Jehovah  Himself  is  Israel's  accuser.  It  is  God, 
and  not  man,  w7ho  renders  the  verdict  against  her, 
and  pronounces  the  sentence  of  her  judicial  condem- 
nation :  "  Hear,  0  heavens,"  cries  the  prophet,  "and 
give  ear,  0  earth  ;  for  Jehovah  speaketh." 

"I  have  brought  up  children,  and  raised  them  high,  and 
they  have  fallen  away  from  me.  An  ox  knoweth  its  owner, 
and  an  ass  its  master's  crib  :  Israel  doth  not  know,  my 
people  doth  not  consider." 

That  is  ;  the  nation  which  stands  so  peculiarly  in 
the  relation  of  children  to  Me,  and  to  whom  I  stand 
so  peculiarly  in  the  relation  of  their  heavenly  Father  ; 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  53 

My  children,  whom  I  have  begotten  \>y  my  promise  to 
their  father  Abraham,  that  I  would  make  of  him  a 
great  nation,  and  bless  them  that  blessed  them,  and 
curse  them  that  cursed  them  ;  and  by  so  many  mani- 
festations of  My  almighty  power  and  sovereign 
grace  in  their  belialf;  Israel,  so  called  after  Jacob, 
their  father,  who  wrestled  with  Me  for  a  blessing 
upon  himself  and  his  descendants,  and  prevailed 
with  Me ;  "  2Iy  people,"  the  nation  which  I  have 
chosen  out  of  all  other  nations  to  be  the  nation  of  My 
possession,  and  My  Own  peculiar  government ; — they 
have  rebelled  against  Me;  they  have  fallen  awaj*  from 
Me  ;  their  rebellion  and  apostasy  have  been  persisted 
in  so  long,  and  have  reached  such  a  height,  that  it 
has  become,  at  last,. simply  inhuman  :  they  have  sunk 
to  a  lower  level  than  the  brutes :  they  have  not  even 
their  instinctive  knowledge  and  perception.  "An  ox 
knoweth  its  owner,  and  an  ass  its  master's  crib :  Is- 
rael doth  not  know,  my  people  doth  not  consider." 

Such  is  Jehovah's  accusation  against  Israel.  Such 
is  Jehovah's  piercing  and  hopeless  lamentation  over 
the  apostate  nation.  The  divine  grief  is  even  a  more 
affecting  accusation  against  the  ungodly  nation,  than 
the  divine  condemnation  itself. 

Here  the  words  of  Jehovah  end.  The  prophet  now 
breaks  forth  with  uncontrollable  vexation  against  the 
ungrateful  and  ungodly  nation. 

"  Woe  upon  the  sinful  nation,  the  guilt-laden  people,  the 
miscreant  race,  the  children  acting  corruptly!  They  have 
forsaken  Jehovah,  blasphemed  Israel's  Holy  One,  turned 
away  backwards." 

That  is;  according  to  the  choice  and  determination 
of  God,  Israel  was  to  be  a  holy  nation,  but  by  her 
own  sinful  choice  and  guilty  self-determination,  by 
the  weight  and  magnitude  of  her  sins,  and  her  con- 
firmed apostasy  of  thought  and  word  and  deed — as  if, 
indeed,  she  were  the  seed,  not  of  the  covenanted  pa- 
triarchs, but  of  evil-doers  only — she  has  now  become 
the   meet    subject,  not    only   of  Jehovah's  hopeless 


54  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

lamentation  over  her,  but  of  lamentation  filled  with 
judicial  wrath.     "  Woe  upon  the  sinful  nation  !" 

"Why  would  ye  be  perpetually  smitten,  multiplying1 
rebellion?     Every  head  is  diseased,  and  every  heart  is  sick?" 

That  is ;  why  are  ye  so  foolish  as  to  heap  apostasy 
upon  apostasy,  and  continue  to  call  down  upon  your- 
selves the  judgments  of  God,  which  have  already 
fallen  upon  37ou,  blow  after  blow  ?  Your  apostasy  has 
reached  such  a  pass,  that  in  all  the  nation  there  is 
not  one  head  or  heart,  that  is  not  morally  and  totally 
diseased  with  sin.  Surely  3'ou  have  been  sufficiently 
smitten  by  the  wrath  of  God  to  have  been  brought 
to  reflection.  But,  alas !  the  whole  nation  is  one 
miserably  diseased  body. 

"From  the  soul  of  the  foot  even  to  the  head  there  is 
nothing  sound  in  it;  cuts,  and  stripes,  and  festering  wounds; 
they  have  not  been  pressed  out,  nor  bound  up,  nor  has  there 
been  any  soothing  with  oil." 

That  is  ;  the  nation  has  rejected  the  merciful  and 
compassionate  kindness  of  God  so  long  ;  and  the 
cure  which  He  has  so  continually  offered  to  effect, 
and  has  now  at  last  become  so  miserably  and  totally 
diseased  throughout,  that  there  is  no  health  in  it,  or 
any  hope  of  it.  In  a  word,  it  is  all  over  with  the 
guilty  nation.     The  day  of  forgiveness  is  pas$. 

The  bod}7,  thus  inwardly  and  outwardly  diseased, 
evidently  includes  both  the  people  and  the  land,  in 
their  alike  fearful  condition  in  the  prophet's  time  ;  for 
he  thus  with  sharp  and  broken  sentences  proceeds : 

"Your  land  ....  a  desert;  your  cities  ....  burned 
with  fire;  your  field  ....  foreigners  consuming  it  be- 
fore your  eyes,  and  a  desert  like  overthrowing  by  stran- 
gers." 

What  a  literal  fulfilment  and  perfect  realization  of 
the  curses  of  the  law,  as  recorded  in  Lev.  xxvi  and 
Dent,  xxviii  and  xxix,  the  latter  of  wdiich  we  have 
cited  ;  and  that  not  only  in  the  time  of  Isaiah,  but 
ever  since ! 


ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  55 

"And  the  daughter  of  Zion  remains  like  a  hut  in  a  vine- 
yard; like  a  hammock  in  a  cueumber  field,  as  a  beseiged 
city." 

That  is ;  although  thus  surrounded  by  the  desola- 
tions of  the  land,  Jerusalem  has,  through  the  omnipo- 
tent mercy  of  God,  escaped  the  curses  of  the  law ; 
even  as  the  prophet  goes  on  to  say  : 

"Unless  Jehovah  of  hosts  had  left  us  a  little  of  what  had 
escaped,  we  had  become  like  Sodom,  we  were  like  Go- 
morrah." 

The  prophet,  haying  thus  affirmed  that  nothing  but 
the  mercy  of  God  had  saved  Israel  from  utter  deso- 
lation and  destruction,  and  spared,  as  yet,  Jerusa- 
lem, now  changes  the  current  of  his  address,  as  if 
anticipating  that  the  nation  would  justify  itself 
against  these  accusations,  by  an  appeal  to  its  scru- 
pulous observance  of  the  law;  and  thus  launches 
forth  the  accusations  of  Jehovah  anew: 

"Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,  ye  Sodom  judges;  give  ear 
to  the  law  of  our  God,  0,  Gomorrah  nation!  What  is  the 
multitude  of  your  slain-offerings  to  me  ?  saith  Jehovah.  I  am 
satiated  with  the  whole  offerings  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of 
stalled  calves;  and  blood  of  bullocks  and  sheep  and  he-goats 
I  do  not  like." 

That  is ;  to  what  purpose  the  multitude  of  your 
sacrifices,  when  offered  unto  Me  with  such  hollow 
formality,  such  hypocritical  and  ceremonial  righte- 
ousness onhr  ?  I  am  weary  of  them.  I  want  no  more 
of  them.  I  never  desired  them.  The  prophet  con- 
tinues in  the  same  strain  : 

"When  ye  come  to  appear  before  my  face,  who  hath  re- 
quired this  at  your  hand,  to  tread  my  courts?  Continue  not 
to  bring  lying  meat-offerings;  abomination  incense  is  it  to  me. 
New-moon  and  Sabbath,  calling  of  festal  meetings;  I  can- 
not bear  ungodliness  and  a  festal  crowd.  Your  new-moons 
and  your  festive  seasons  my  soul  hateth  ;  they  have  become 
a  burden  to  me;  I  am  weary  of  bearing  them.  And  if  ye 
stretch  out  your  hands,  I  hide  my  eves  from  you  ;  if  ye 
make  ever  so  much  praying  I  do  not  hear,  your  hands  are 
full  of  blood." 


56  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

Thus  the  last  bulwark  of  their  self-righteousness 
was  now  swept  away.  Even  their  praying,  an  instinct 
common  to  all  men  who  recognize  a  Supreme  Being, 
however  ignorantlv,  had  becdme  an  abomination  to 
God. 

As  we  have  already  asked,  what  crowning  sin  could 
the  nation  now  commit,  that  would  render  it  more 
deserving  of  God's  judicial  wrath  ? 

We  come  now  to  the  judicial  sentence  itself. 

Isaiah  is  admitted  into  the  personal  presence  of 
the  "  Holy  One  of  Israel,"  by  Whom  is  meant  in  the 
scene  of  the  present  vision,  as  St.  John,  the  evange- 
list, informs  us  (John  xii,  41),  the  Second  Person  of 
the  Godhead,  or  Christ  Himself.  This  appellation, 
in  the  twenty-nine  instances  of  its  use  by  Isaiah — but 
five  times  is  it  elsewhere  used  in  the  Old-Testament 
Scriptures,  three  times  in  the  Psalms,  and  twice  in 
Jeremiah — uniformly  refers  to  the  Messiah  alone. 

"  I  saw,"  says  the  prophet,  "  the  Lord  of  all  sitting 
upon  a  high  and  exalted  throne,  and  his  borders  fill- 
ing the  temple." 

That  is;  the  prophet,  being  carried  up  into  heaven, 
beheld,  seated  upon  a  high  and  exalted  throne,  which 
was  the  heavenly  antitype  of  the  earthly  throne 
formed  by  the  ark  of  the  covenant  in  the  earthly 
temple,  the  Lord  of  all  in  human  form,  His  robes 
filling  the  temple. 

"Above  it  stood  seraphim  :  each  one  had  six  wings;  with 
two  he  covered  his  face,  and  with  two  he  covered  his  feet, 
and  with  two  he  did  fly.  And  one  cried  to  the  other,  and 
said,  Holy,  holy,  holy  is  Jehovah  of  hosts:  filling  the  whole 
earth  is  His  glory." 

The  seraphim  here  described  are  nowhere  else 
mentioned  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  are  supposed 
to  be  the  media  or  messengers  of  the  fire  of  the 
divine  love,  as  the  cherubim  are  supposed  to  be 
the  media  or  messengers  of  the  fire  of  the  divine 
wrath.  Their  ascription  of  holiness  to  the  Lord 
is  undoubtedly  to  be  understood  in  the  same  sense 
with    the   doxology   of    the   four    living    creatures 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  57 

described  in  the  Revelation  (Rev.  iv,  8);  "  Holy,  holy, 
holy,  Lord  God  Almighty,  Who  was,  and  is,  and  is  to 
come."  This  ascription  of  the  seraphim  does  not 
mean,  that  when  Isaiah  thus  beheld  them,  the  whole 
earth,  or  any  part  of  it,  and  least  of  all  the  nation  of 
Israel,  was  tilled  with  the  glory  of  Jehovah;  but  that, 
when  the  purposes  of  God  in  behalf  of  Israel,  and, 
through  Israel,  in  behalf  of  all  mankind,  should  all  be 
accomplished,  towards  the  fulfilment  of  which  the 
judicial  blinding  of  Israel  had  now  become  a  ne- 
cessary step,  then  the  whole  earth  should  be  filled 
with  His  glory,  even  as  Jehovah  sware  unto  Moses 
in  the  wilderness,  "  As  truly  as  I  live,  all  the  earth 
shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord."  It  is  the 
ultimate  and  complete  triumph  onty,  the  millennial 
triumph,  of  the  merciful  purposes  of  Jehovah,  that  is 
contemplated  by  both  of  these  sublime  doxologies ;  a 
result,  however,  which  could  only  be  accomplished, 
in  consistency  with  the  principles  of  God's  holy 
government,  by  the  employment,  not  less  of  the  divine 
justice,  than  of  the  divine  mercy,  as  God  in  His  holy 
providence  has  always  shown. 

This  judicial  and  retributive  blinding  of  Israel,  if 
we  short-sighted  mortals  could  but  see  it  in  its  true 
light,  was  as  necessary  to  her  final  salvation,  as  well 
as  to  the  vindication  of  the  divine  glory,  as  was  her 
Egyptian  captivit}^  before,  or  her  Babylonian  cap- 
tivity afterwards,  or  her  Roman,  or  more  general 
Gentile  captivity  now.  What  may  seem  to  us  at  the 
time  but  unfeeling  vengeance  in  the  necessary  execu- 
tion of  justice  upon  a  hardened  and  incorrigible 
criminal,  may  prove,  in  the  end,  the  greatest  mercy 
that  could  be  displa37ed  towards  him.  Was  it  not  a 
mere}7  to  Israel  thus  to  arrest,  her  in  mid-career, 
and  blind  her  eyes  to  the  terrible  enormity  of  her 
guilt? 

It  is  not  material  to  inquire  whether  this  threefold 
ascription  of  the  seraphim  of  holiness  to  the  Iiord  is 
used  in  any  intended  symbolic  sense  or  reference, 
as  the  symbol  of  the  expanded  unity  of  the  Godhead, 


58  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

three  being  the  number,  which,  with  the  kejMiote, 
produces  a  perfect  chord.  The  antiphonal  chorus  cf 
the  seraphim  is  here  of  interest  to  us  alone,  as  showing 
the  holiness  and  purity  of  the  presence  into  which 
the  prophet  was  thus  graciously  admitted ;  in  which 
divine  and  seraphic  presence  he  was  about  to  receive 
the  absolution  of  his  sins,  preparatory  to  his  com- 
mission to  pronounce  the  sentence  of  judicial  blind- 
ness upon  his  own  guilt}^  but  beloved  Israel. 

The  prophet,  at  first  entranced  and  overwhelmed 
by  the  ineffable  splendor  of  the  scene,  recovering  his 
self-possession,  exclaims  : — 

<%  Woe  is  me!  for  I  am  lost;  for  I  am  a  man  of  unclean 
lips,  and  1  am  dwelling  among  a  people  of  unclean  lips; 
for  mine  eyes  have  seen  the  King,  Jehovah  of  hosts.  And 
one  of  the  seraphim  flew  to  me  with  a  red-hot  coal  in  his 
hand,  which  he  had  taken  with  the  tongs  from  the  altar. 
And  he  touched  my  month  with  it,  and  said,  Behold  this 
hath  touched  thy  lips,  and  thine  iniquity  is  taken  away; 
and  so  thy  sin  is  expiated.  Then  I  heard  the  voice  of  the 
Lord,  saying,  whom  shall  I  send,  and  who  will  go  for  us. 
Then  I  said,  Behold  me  here;  send  me." 

We  recognize  in  connection  with  this  whole  scene,  its 
heavenly  splendor,  the  divine  and  seraphic  presence, 
the  sublime  doxology  of  the  seraphim,  the  office 
which  they  filled  in  connection  with  the  divine 
holiness  and  love,  and  the  seraphic  absolution  of  the 
prophet's  sins,  not  only  the  lofty  and  peculiar  fitness 
of  Jsaiah  to  become  the  ministerial  agent  of  so  ter- 
rible a  sentence,  but  his  no  less  lofty  and  peculiar 
identification  with  the  divine  purposes  in  respect  to 
the  ultimate  triumph  and  glory  of  Christ's  millennial 
kingdom,  and  his  equal  fitness  to  be,  at  the  same 
time,  above  all  others,  alike  the  great  judicial  and 
great  millennial  prophet  of  Israel,  as  we  have  already 
described  him. 

Listen  now  to  the  commission  in  which  the  heavenly 
scene  reaches  its  awful  consummation  : — 

"  He  said,  Go,  and  tell  this  people  [not  My 
people,    this   people],    Hear    on,   and     understand 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  59 

not;  and  look  on,  but  perceive  not  [These  gerun- 
dives imply  the  prolonged  continuance  of  the 
sentence].  Make  ye  the  heart  of  this  people  greasy, 
and  their  earn  heavy,  and  their  eyes  sticky  [These 
imperatives  are  not  to  be  understood  as  simply  a 
commission  to  the  prophet  to  lell  the  people  what 
God  had  determined  to  do.  They  imply,  in  an  in- 
tensive sense,  the  idea  and  continuous  process  of 
hardening,  with  God  as  the  principal  and  efficient 
cause,  the  message  the  mediate  cause,  and  the 
prophet  the  ministerial  cause]  ;  that  they  may  not 
see  with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with  their  ears,  and 
their  heart  understand,  and  they  be  converted,  and 
one  heal  them." 

How  mournful  the  commission  !  How  terrible  the 
sentence !  How  terribly  opposite  to  the  seraphic 
mission  the  prophet  had  experienced  in  himself! 
The  seraph  had  absolved  Isaiah  with  the  burning  coal, 
not  that  he  as  a  prophet  might  absolve,  but  harden 
his  people  by  his  word  ;  that  he  might  be  the  prophet 
of  the  destruction,  not  less  than  of  the  ultimate 
salvation  of  his  nation. 

Such  was  the  sentence  of  judicial  blindness  that 
ever  afterwards  huno-  over  Israel  during  the  re- 
mainder  of  the  Old-Testament  dispensation  ;  which 
hung  over  her  during  the  whole  earthly  ministry  of 
her  Messiah;  to  which  He  so  often  and  with  such  in- 
finite sorrow  alluded  ;  which  He  declared  to  be  the 
reason  why  He  spake  to  the  multitudes  in  parables, 
explaining  them  not,  and  not  in  more  intelligible 
forms  of  speech  ;  with  which  He  would  never  inter- 
fere, but  only  reaffirm,  and  ever  reaffirm,  though  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  should  pass  away.  Indeed  it 
was  the  Messiah  of  Israel  Himself  Who  was  the  Author 
of  the  sentence,  and  appointed,  as  we  shall  directly 
see,  the  term  of  its  continuance  ;  and  will  He  reverse 
His  Own  decree,  before  its  appointed  term  expires  ? 
44  Think  not  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  or  the 
prophets:  I  am  not  come  to  destro}',  but  to  fulfil. 
For    veril}'   I    say  unto  you,  Till  heaven  and  earth 


60  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

pass,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in  no  wise  pass  from 
the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled."  Such,  finally,  is  the 
sentence  which  hangs  over  Israel  now,  and  will  con- 
tinue to  hang  over  her,  "  till  all  shall  be  fulfilled." 
Nothing,  since  this  sentence  of  judicial  blindness  was 
first  pronounced,  has  ever  availed  to  reach  the  in- 
sensible heart  of  the  guilty  nation,  and  nothing 
ever  will,  "  till  all  shall  be  fulfilled."  Israel's  Mes- 
siah, in  His  personal  ministry  upon  the  earth, as  com- 
pletely abandoned  the  nation  to  its  judicial  blind- 
ness, as  He  so  abandoned  it  in  the  vision  in  which  He 
appeared  to  Isaiah  ;  and  His  apostles  followed  His 
example :  and  abandoned  thereto  will  it  remain, 
until  His  feet  shall  stand  again  upon  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  and  Israel  shall  reach  the  fearful  climax  of 
her  supernatural  servitude  and  affliction  under  her 
present  judicial  dispensation,  all  human  schemes  and 
speculations  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

Henceforward,  Israel's  judicial  blindness,  her  judi- 
cial insensibility  of  heart,  her  hopelessly  incorrigible 
impenitence  and  unbelief,  is  an  element  which  enters 
into  the  preaching  of  Isaiah,  and  of  all  the  succeeding 
prophets,  and  no  less  into  the  teachings  of  Christ  and 
His  apostles.  Henceforward,  a  moral  night  of  deep- 
est darkness  and  impenetrable  gloom,  in  fulfilment 
of  this  sentence,  settles  down  upon  the  judicially- 
blinded  nation.  The  prophets  and  the  apostles  and 
Christ  Himself  invariably  recognize  Israel's  total 
want  of  moral  understanding  and  perception  even, 
and  the  utter  hopelessness  of  preaching  repentance 
to  the  nation,  or  seeking  to  reclaim  it  from  its  sins, 
"  till  all  shall  be  fulfilled,"  at  the  close  of  her  judicial 
dispensation,  against  the  apostate  and  abandoned 
nation.  Especially  was  the  fearful  condemnation 
which  rested  upon  the  nation,  ever  present  to  the 
mind  of  the  prophet  who  first  pronounced  it.  At  a 
later  period  of  his  ministry,  he  refers  to  it  in  the 
strongest  terms  (chap,  xliv,  18).  So  also  Jeiemiah 
(v,  21).     So  also  Ezekiel  (xii,  2). 

So  also,  under  the  New-Testament  dispensation, 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  61 

does  the  apostle  Paul  refer  to  it  as  an  irrevocable  de- 
cree, which  had  gone  forth  against  the  nation,  and 
was  to  last  until  the  close  of  her  present  judicial  dis- 
pensation ;  or,  to  use  his  own  words,  "till  the  fulness 
of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in  ;"  or,  to  use  the  words  of 
our  Saviour,  expressive  of  precisely  the  same  mean- 
ing, 4<  until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  fulfilled." 
Sa}Ts  Paul, "  Israel  hath  not  obtained  that  which  she 
seeketh  for ;  but  the  election  hath  obtained  it,  and  the 
rest  [the  nation  at  large]  were  blinded  ;  according  as 
it  is  written  [Is.  xxix,  9-12],  God  hath  given  them 
the  spirit  of  slumber,  eyes  that  the}'  should  not  see, 
and  ears  that  they  should  not  hear,  unto  this  day. 
And  David  saith  [Ps.  lxix,  22,  23],  Let  their  table 
be  made  a  snare,  and  a  trap,  and  a  stumbling-block, 
and  a  recompense  unto  them:  Let  their  eyes  be 
darkened,  that  they  may  not  see,  and  bow  down  their 
back  always." 

So  again,  the  same  apostle,  having  expourded  the 
Scriptures  "  out  of  the  law  of  Moses,  and  out  of  the 
prophets,  from  morning  till  evening,"  to  certain  Jews 
who  came  to  him  at  Rome,  vexed  at  last  by  their 
total  moral  insensibility,  and  total  want  of  moral 
perception,  thus  dismissed  them  from  his  presence ; 
"  Well  spake  the  Holy  Ghost  by  Esaias  the  prophet 
unto  our  fathers,  saying,  Go  unto  this  people,  and 
say,  Hearing  ye  shall  hear,  and  not  understand ;  and 
seeing  ye  shall  see,  and  not  perceive ;  for  the  heart  of 
this  people  is  waxed  gross,  and  their  ears  are  dull  of 
hearing,  and  their  e}'es  have  they  closed ;  lest  they 
should  see  with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with  their  ears, 
and  understand  with  their  heart,  and  should  be  con- 
verted and  I  should  heal  them.  Be  it  known  there- 
fore unto  }rou.  that  the  salvation  of  God  is  sent  unto 
the  Gentiles,  and  the}'  will  hear  it."  Acts  xxviii,  23-29. 

Did  the  apostle  Paul  give  wa}T  to  discouragement 
and  despondenc}T,  when  he  thus  encountered  an  ob- 
stacle so  insurmountable  to  his  preaching,  as  the 
judicial  blindness  of  his  nation?  Not  at  all.  It  is 
immediately  added,  that "  Paul  dwelt  two  whole  years 


62  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

[fit  Rome]  in  his  own  hired  house,  and  received  all 
that  came  in  uuto  him,  preaching  the  kingdom  of 
God,  and  teaching  those  things  which  concern  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  with  all  confidence,  no  man  for- 
bidding him." 

Paul  cheated  not  himself  with  any  of  the  rose-colored 
and  delusive  expectations,  with  which  it  is  so  often  and 
so  unscripturally  sought  to  stimulate  the  tardy  piety 
of  our  own  times.  He  was  content  if  none,  who  were 
appointed  unto  salvation,  failed  of  the  grace  of  God 
by  any  want  of  diligence  on  his  part ;  tk  For  I  speak 
to  you,  Gentiles,  inasmuch  as  I  am  the  apostle  of  the 
Gentiles,  I  magnify  my  office  ;  if  by  an}'  means  I  may 
provoke  to  emulation  those  which  are  my  flesh,  and 
may  save  some  of  them."  "Save  some  of  them!" 
This  was  the  mark  towards  which  this  wonderful 
apostle  pressed  forward  for  the  prize  of  his  high 
calling. 

Again  ;  St.  John,  the  Evangelist,  briefly  summing 
up,  after  the  supper  at  Bethany,  the  results  of  the 
ministry  of  our  Saviour,  and  alluding  to  its  unsuc- 
cessful termination,  so  far  as  the  nation  at  large  was 
concerned,  says : — 

"But  though  He  had  done  so  many  mighty  works  before 
them,  yet  they  believed  not  on  him:  that  the  saying  of  Esaias 
the  prophet  might  be  fulfilled,  which  he  spake,  Lord  who 
hath  believed  our  report?  and  to  whom  hath  the  arm  of  the 
IiOrd  been  revealed?  Therefore  they  could  not  believe,  be- 
cause that  Esaias  said  again.  He  hath  blinded  their  eyes, 
and  hardened  their  hearts;  that  they  should  not  see  with 
their  eyes,  nor  understand  with  their  heart,  and  be  converted, 
and  I  should  heal  them."     John  xii.  37-40. 

The  immediately  following  words  of  the  Evange- 
list show  that  it  was  the  Second  Person  of  the  God- 
head, the  Messiah  of  Israel  Himself,  Who  appeared 
to  Isaiah  in  the  vision. 

"  These  things  said  Esaias,  when  he  saw  his 
glory,  and  spake  of  him."     v.  41. 

How  manifestly,  also,  did  our  Saviour  recognize 
the  impassible  barrier  which  the  judicial  blindness 


Israel's  judicial  blindness  63 

of  the  nation  presented  to  His  Own  ministry.  Weep- 
ing over  Jerusalem  just  at  the  close  of  His  earthly 
ministry,  how  sorrowfully  He  exclaimed  !  "  0,  that 
thou,  even  thou,  at  least  in  this  thy  day,  hadst  known 
the  things  that  belong  to  thy  peace;  but  now  they 
are  hid  from  thine  eyes  !" 

So,  also,  at  an  earlier  period  of  His  ministry,  did 
He  expressly  assure  His  disciples  that  the  judicial 
blindness  of  the  nation  was  the  reason  why  He 
spake  to  it  in  parables. 

''Therefore  speak  I  to  them  in  parables;  because  they 
seeing  see  not;  and  hearing  they  hear  not;  neither  do  they 
understand.  And  in  them  is  refill  filled  the  prophecy  of 
Esaias.  By  hearing  ye  shall  hear,  and  shall  not  understand; 
and  seeing  ye  shall  see,  and  shall  not  perceive;  for  this 
people's  heart  is  waxed  gross,  and  their  ears  are  dull  of 
hearing,  and  their  eyes  have  they  closed;  lest  at  anytime 
they  should  see  with  their  eyes,  and  hear  with  their  ears, 
and  should  understand  with  their  hearts,  and  should  be  con- 
verted, and  I  should  heal  them."     Matt,  xiii,  13-15. 

The  depth  and  totality  of  their  judicial  blindness 
is  made  still  more  manifest  and  impressive  b}r  the 
contrast  presented  to  the  nation  at  large  by  His  con- 
cluding words  to  His  disciples: — 

k<  But  blessed  are  your  eyes,  for  they  see;  and 
your  ears,  for  they  hear."  v.  16. 

That  is;  you,  my  disciples,  and  the  faithful  rem- 
nant, the  election  of  grace,  of  which  you  are,  and 
which  you  represent,  are  able  to  understand  and 
believe  the  secrets  of  my  spiritual  kingdom;  the 
riches  of  my  free  salvation;  the  mysteries  of  mj-  re- 
deeming love;  the  infinite  atonement  of  my  precious 
blood;  my  redemptive  title  to  the  usurped  sove- 
reignty of  lost  and  fallen  Israel,  and  of  a  lost  and 
ruined  world.  But  they  do  not,  and  cannot,  under- 
stand. They  know  not,  neither  do  they  consider. 
They  have  sunk  to  a  lower  level  than  the  brutes,  and 
have  not  even  their  instinctive  knowledge  and  per- 
ception. The}'  are  dead  in  their  trespasses  and  sins 
and  unbelief.     They  are  wholly  destitute  of  spiritual 


64  Israel's  .judicial  blindness. 

discernment.  They  are  insensible  alike  to  the  ap- 
peals of  mercy,  and  to  the  chastisements  of  wrath. 
They  despise,  and  reject,  and  deride,  and  persecute 
Me.  They  obstinately  deny  My  rightful  claims,  both 
as  their  temporal  Messiah,  as  their  onyii  records 
show,  and  as  their  spiritual  Messiah,  as  is  attested 
by  My  mighty  works.  They  blaspheme  Me,  charging 
Me  that  I  cast  out  devils  by  Beelzebub  the  prince  of 
the  devils.  They  grieve  away  the  Holy  Spirit  in  this 
His  Own  peculiar  dispensation.  The}'  reproach  Me 
for  My  obscure  origin  and  humble  followers,  My 
fastings  and  My  tears,  and  make  Me  the  song  even 
of  the  drunkards  in  their  gates. 

And  yet  how  the  forgiving  heart  of  our  Saviour 
melts  over  the  sinful  nation!  uO!  Jerusalem,  Jeru- 
salem, thou  that  killest  the  prophets,  and  stonest 
them  which  are  sent  unto  thee;  how  often  would  I 
have  gathered  tb}'  children  together  even  as  a  hen 
gathereth  her  chickens  under  her  wings,  and  ye 
would  not."  Matt,  xxiii,  37.     Therefore — 

"  Because  I  have  called,  and  ye  have  refused;  I 
have  stretched  out  my  hand,  and  no  man  regarded; 
but  ye  have  set  at  naught  all  my  counsels,  and  would 
none  of  1113'  reproof;  I  also  will  laugh  at  your  ca- 
lamity; I  will  mock  when  your  fear  cometh;  when 
your  fear  cometh  as  desolation;  and  your  destruction 
cometh  as  a  whirlwind;  when  distress  and  anguish 
cometh  upon  you.  Then  shall  they  call  upon  me,  but 
I  will  not  answer;  they  shall  seek  me  earl}',  but  they 
shall  not  find  me;  for  that  they  hated  knowledge, 
and  did  not  choose  the  fear  of  the  Lord;  they  would 
none  of  my  counsel;  they  despised  all  n\y  reproof. 
Therefore  shall  they  eat  of  the  fruit  of  their  own 
way,  and  be  filled  with  their  own  devices.  For  the 
ease  of  the  simple  shall  slay  them,  and  the  pros- 
perity of  fools  shall  destroy  them."  Prov.  i,  24-32. 
And  yet,  alas  !  "  How  shall  I  give  thee  up,  Ephraim  ? 
how  shall  I  deliver  thee,  Israel  ?  how  shall  I  make  thee 
as  Admah?  how  shall  I  set  thee  as  Zeboim  ?  mine 
heart  is  turned  within   me,  my  repentings  are  kin- 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  65 

died  together.     I  will  not  execute  the  fierceness  of 
mine  anger.     I  will  not  return  to  destroy  Ephraim; 
for  I  am   God,  and  not   man;  the    Holy  One  in  the 
midst  of  thee."  Hosea  xi,  8-9.    kFain  would  I  draw 
them  even  now,'  does  our  Saviour  seem  to  say,  as  for 
the  last  time  He  wept  over  untoward  Israel,  *  with 
the  cords  of  a  man,  with  the  bonds  of  love,  and  take 
otf    the    yoke    on    their    jaws,  and  lay  meat   unto 
them;"    but    now,    alas!    it   is  only    left   to    Me  to 
foretell   to  them  the  certain  judicial   consequences 
of    their    own     sinful    conduct    as    judicially-con- 
demned  criminals,    which,    when    they    are  all   ful- 
filled upon  them,  and  they  are  moved  upon  by  the 
Spirit   of  grace,  and  of  supplications  which    I  will 
pour  upon  them  at  My  second  coming,  at  the  expi- 
ration of  their  judicial   sentence  and  dispensation, 
may  prove  the  means  of  bringing  them,  at  last,  to 
repentance;    for,  as  I  told  them  in   the  wilderness,  I 
am   a   merciful   and    long- suffering    God,    forgiving 
iniquity,  transgression  and  sin.     Therefore  I  speak 
to   them   in    parables,  that   their  own  past,  present 
and   future   sinful  conduct,  thus  ever  held  up  in  a 
prophetic  mirror  before  them,  majT,  at  last,  in  their 
own    sight    condemn   them.     It    is   the    only  hope. 
Thus  only,  while  justice  is  satisfied,  can  mercy  su- 
pervene, and   triumph    in    the   end.     "  For  I  would 
not,  brethren,  that  ye  should  be  ignorant  of  this  m3<s- 
tery,  lest   ye  should    be  wise    in  your  own  conceits, 
that  blindness  in  part  is  happened  to  Israel,  until  the 
fulness  of  the  Gentiles  be  come  in.     And  so  all  Israel 
shall  be  saved:  as  it  is  written,  There  shall  come  out 
of  Zion  the  Deliverer,  and  shall  turn  away  ungodli- 
ness from  Jacob;  for  this  is  my  covenant  unto  them, 
when  I  shall  take  away  their  sins.11  Rom.  xi,  25-27. 
Thus  perished  guilty  Israel  in  her  sins.     Thus  was 
she  condemned  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  her  own  ways, 
and  to  be  filled  with  her   own   devices.     All  was  in 
vain  to  save  her.      The  warnings  of   the  prophets, 
whom,  one  after  another,  she  smote,  and  killed,  and 
stoned,  are  at  last  all  justified  ;  and  now  the  wicked 


66  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

husbandmen  seek  the  life  of  the  son  and  heir.  Moses  ; 
Isaiah ;  Christ;  the  burning  bush,  with  its  unconsum- 
ing  flames  ;  the  burning  altar,  with  its  seraphic 
choirs  ;  the  star  of  Bethlehem,  with  its  angel  choirs  ; 
the  baptism  of  water,  the  baptism  of  the  Hoty  Ghost, 
and  the  baptism  of  fire  ;  the  persuasions  of  the  divine 
love,  the  beating  and  trembling  waves  of  the  divine 
wrath ;  all,  all  was  in  vain.  The  prophet  who  pro- 
nounced the  sentence  of  judicial  blindness  was  sawn 
in  sunder.  Its  divine  Author  and  Ratifier  was  put  to 
the  ignominious  death,  servile  swpplicium,  of  a 
Roman  slave,  bearing  His  Own  cross  to  the  sacrifice. 
Well  might  the  conscious  and  astonished  earth  shake 
with  horror,  and  veil  itself  in  darkness  at  the  scene  ! 

But  a  holy  remnant  remains  :  it  always  has  re- 
mained :  it  always  will  remain  :  it  always  has  been 
preserved  :  it  always  will  be  preserved  :  a  holy  seed  : 
"  to  whom  [effectually]  pertaineth  the  adoption,  and 
the  glory,  and  the  covenants,  and  the  giving  of  the 
law,  and  the  service  of  God,  and  the  promises,"  and 
through  whom  all  Israel  will  finally  be  saved.  Well 
did  Isaiah  exclaim,  "  Except  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth 
had  left  us  a  seed,  wTe  had  been  as  Sodom,  and  had 
been  made  like  unto  Gomorrah." 

"  And  is  there  still  a  tenth  therein,  this  also  is 
given  up  to  destruction,  like  the  terebinth  and  like 
the  oak,  of  which,  when  they  are  felled,  only  a  root- 
stump  remains :  such  a  root-stump    is   a  holy  seed." 

Cut  down  the  aged  oak  or  terebinth  of  Palestine 
to  the  very  roots.  Out  of  the  battered  stump  a  new 
shoot  will  spring,  a  holy  nation,  a  royal  priesthood, 
a  chosen  generation,  a  rod  out  of  the  worn-out  stem 
of  Jesse,  a  fruitful  branch  out  of  the  withered  root 
of  David  ;  and  the  wilderness  and  the  solitary  place 
shall  be  glad  for  them,  and  the  desert  shall  rejoice 
and  blossom  as  the  rose  ;  it  shall  blossom  abundantly, 
even  with  joy  and  singing.  Then  "the  eyes  of  them 
that  see,  shall  not  bedim ;  and  the  ears  of  them  that 
hear,  shall  hearken." 

But  when,  the  inquiry  now  arises,  will  the  sentence 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  67 

of  Israel's  judicial  blindness,  the  term  of  her  judicial 
condemnation,  expire? 

The  divine  Author  of  the  sentence  has  told  us,  in 
answer  to  the  same  inquiry  made  of  Him  by  Isaiah. 
He  replied ;  "  until  towns  are  wasted  without  inhabi- 
tant, and  the  houses  without  man,  and  the  ground 
shall  be  laid  waste,  a  wilderness,  and  Jehovah  shall 
put  men  far  away,  and  there  shall  be  many  forsaken 
places  within  the  land."    Isa.  vi,  11. 

This  reply,  however  definite  as  to  the  desolating 
consequences,  is  not  definite  as  to  any  prophetic  and 
related  point  of  time,  or  prophetic  and  related  order 
of  events,  in  concurrence  with  which  the  sentence 
will  be  finally  fulfilled. 

But  the  Divine  Author  of  the  sentence,  in  answer 
to  essentially  the  same  inquiry,  made  of  Him  by  His 
disciples,  just  before  the  close  of  His  personal  minis- 
try, renders  both  the  prophetic  and  related  point  of 
time  and  the  prophetic  and  related  order  of  events 
in  connection  with  which  the  term  of  Israel's  judicial 
blindness  will  expire,  perfectly  clear  and  definite. 
"  They  (Israel)  shall  fall  by  the  edge  of  the  sword, 
and  shall  be  led  away  captive  into  all  nations :  and 
Jerusalem  shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles, 
until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled.  *  *  * 
Then  look  up,  and  lift  up  3rour  heads ;  for  your  re- 
demption draweth  nigh."    Luke  xxi,  24-33. 

The  term  of  Israel's  judicial  blindness  will  there- 
fore cease,  when  "the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be 
fulfilled,"  and  when,  in  connection  therewith,  all 
the  prophetic  judgments,  both  of  the  Old  and  the 
^New-Testament  revelations,  including  the  judicial 
prophecies  of  the  parables,  shall  be  finally  accom- 
plished upon  her. 

But  when,  the  supplementary  inquiry  arises,  will 
the  times  of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled,  since  then  it  is 
that  the  term  of  Israel's  judicial  blindness  will  cease? 
This  inquiry  appears  to  us  to  be  susceptible,  upon 
the  testimony  of  the  prophetic  Scriptures,  of  a  per- 
lectly  clear   and    definite    answer;  not   however,  in 


C8  ISRAEL'S   JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS. 

respect  to  any  precise,  independent,  and  absolute,  or, 
indeed,  proximate  date,  chronologically  determined, 
or  determinable;  but  in  respect  only  and  clearly,  to 
the  precise  and  related  order  of  certain  future  events; 
which  events  are  frequently  spoken  of  in  the  pro- 
phetic Scriptures  as  occurring  simultaneously,  at  the 
close  of  the  present  dispensation,  or  order  of  things. 
These  events  are  rarely,  if  ever,  described  or  re- 
ferred to  in  prophetic  Scripture  as  isolated  events. 
They  are  never  confounded  with  an}^  other  events. 
It  is  impossible  to  mistake  them,  or  the  related  time 
and  order  of  their  occurrence,  at  the  close  of  the 
present  dispensation,  or  rather,  which  more  especi- 
ally concerns  our  present  theme,  at  the  conjunction, 
before  referred  to,  of  Israel's  judicial  and  millennial 
dispensations.  The}'  form  a  wholly  distinct  group 
by  themselves.  They  are  clearly  stated  and  defined, 
and  often  in  their  inseparable  relation  to  one  an- 
other. There  is  not  a  constellation  in  our  nightly 
heavens,  that  presents  to  the  eye  a  clearer  out- 
line, or  shines  with  a  more  distinct  and  constant 
lustre,  than  this  particular  group  of  events  upon  the 
prophetic  pages.  Three  of  them  only,  however,  al- 
though there  are  others  of  not  less  vital  consequence, 
enter  into  our  present  inquiry,  as  to  when  the  times 
of  the  Gentiles  will  be  fulfilled,  namely: — 

1.  The  second  advent  of  the  Messiah  of  Israel. 

2.  The  simultaneous  deliverance  of  Israel  from  her 
Gentile  oppressors,  and  the  introduction  of  her  mil- 
lennial dispensation. 

3.  The  complete  and  final  overthrow  of  Gentile 
ascendency  over  Israel,  and  the  close  of  the  proba- 
tionary dispensation  of  the  Gentile  nations. 

To  obtain  a  correct  view  of  the  three  events  to 
which  we  here  refer,  in  their  mutually  related  oc- 
currence, we  must  first  briefl}r  advert  to  the  prophetic 
history  of  the  Jewish  nation  as  it  approaches  the 
close  of  the  present  dispensation. 

Israel  will  first  be  restored,  and,  as  a  nation,  be 
reinstated  in  her  own  land,  and  exercise  all  the  func- 


ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  09 

tions  of  an  organized  nationality  therein,  as  com- 
pletely as  ever  before,  or  as  ever  any  other  nation. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Antichrist,  the  last  great 
monarch  of  the  Gentiles,  the  ungodly  and  confede- 
rated Gentile  nations — the  victims  of  a  greater  than 
Israel's  judicial  blindness,  of  the  "strong  delu- 
sion" to  which  the  apostle  Paul  refers  in  his  Second 
Epistle  to  the  Thessalonian  Church  (2  Thess.  ii, 
8-12),  and  jealous,  we  may  well  suppose,  of  the  great 
wealth  and  political  power  of  Israel,  of  the  fore- 
shadowing of  her  coming  ascendency  and  exalta- 
tion, and  of  her  still  professed  allegiance  to  the  God 
of  Israel — will  gather  themselves  together,  by  their 
representative  hosts,  against  Jerusalem,-  there  to 
enact  the  closing  scene  of  that  great  tribula- 
tion, to  which,  under  Antichrist,  she  will  have  been 
subjected,  "a  tribulation  such  as  never  was  since 
there  was  a  nation,  no,  nor  ever  shall  be."*  It  is  at 
this  point  that  prophecy  takes  up  the  description  of 
the  final  conflict  between  Israel  and  the  nations  of 
the  Gentiles,  the  time  of  the  occurrence  of  which  is 
so  often  denominated  in  the  prophetic  Scriptures, 
"the  day  of  the  Lord,"  or  "day  of  visitation,"  when 
the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  shall  set  up  a  standard  against 
the  enemies  of  Israel,  and  the  Redeemer  shall  come 
again  to  Zion. 

Before  proceeding,  however,  to  the  prophetic  evi- 
dence of  the  joint  occurrence  of  the  three  events  to 
which  we  have  referred;  namely,  the  second  advent 
of  the  Messiah  of  Israel,  the  deliverance  of  Israel, 
and  the  final  overthrow  of  Gentile  ascendency  in  the 
earth,  we  must  not  omit  to  call  attention  to  a  con- 
clusion from  our  foregoing  reasoning,  of  the  highest 
prophetic  consequence. 

We  have  never  seen  it  claimed  by  any  sacred  wri- 
ter or  expositor,  that  a  millennium  is  to  be  enjoyed 
upon  the  earth,  under  the  present  Gospel  dispensation, 
which  shall  not  include  the  nation  of  Israel.     In- 

*  For  a  statement  of  the  proofs  on  these  points,  see  "The  Anti- 
Christ  of  Prophecy,"  in  "  Briefs  on  Prophetic  Themes." 


70  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

deed,  it  is  universally  admitted,  that  one  of  the  most 
prominent  and  glorious  features  of  the  expected 
millennium  will  be  the  full  realization  of  God's  an- 
cient covenants  concerning  Israel  and  Jerusalem. 

Now  if  Israel  and  Jerusalem  are  to  be  trodden 
down  of  the  Gentiles,  or,  which  is  the  same  thing, 
are  to  remain  under  their  present  judicial  condemna- 
tion, until  the  t?mes  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  fulfilled, 
and  if  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  are  not  to  be  fulfilled 
until  the  close  of  the  present  Gentile  dispensation, 
how  is  it  possible  that  God's  covenants  of  blessing 
with  Israel  and  Jerusalem  should  be  fulfilled,  so 
long  as  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  remain  unfulfilled, 
so  Jong  as  the  present  dispensation  is  still  uncon- 
cluded,  and  the  tread ing-down  of  Israel,  and  her 
judicial  blindness  are  still  unaccomplished  upon 
her? 

But  God's  ancient  covenants  will  at  some  time  be 
fulfilled.  His  promises  are  forever  sure.  He  is  a 
covenant-keeping  God.  And  if  His  covenants  with 
His  covenant-people  have  not  been  fulfilled  in  a  past 
dispensation,  or  in  the  past  of  the  present  dispensa- 
tion, and  are  not  to  be  fulfilled  in  the  future  of  the 
present  dispensation,  when,  we  ask,  will  the}7  be  ful- 
filled, if  not  in  a  future  dispensation?  and  must  not 
such  future  dispensation,  because  of  their  fulfilment, 
be  a  millennial  dispensation  ?  must  it  not  be  the  mil- 
lennial dispensation?  or,  if  there  is  to  be  any  other 
millennium,  or  a  millennium  at  any  other  time,  when, 
what,  and  where,  and  by  what  authority  ?  Is  there 
to  be  a  millennium,  in  which  Israel,  as  a  nation,  and 
the  covenants  and  promises  of  God  concerning  Israel 
are  not  to  be  included  ?  a  Gentile  millennium  with 
Israel  left  out  ?     God  forbid  ! 

What  is  thus  true  of  the  ancient  Jewish  covenants 
is  equally  true  of  the  millennial  visions  of  Isaiah, 
which  are  wholly  based  upon  them,  and  can  only  be 
fulfilled  when  they  are  fulfilled  ;  which  can  pertain 
only  to  the  dispensation  to  which  they  pertain,  and 
not  to   Israel  under  her  present  judicial  condemna- 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  71 

tion,  under  the  curse  of  judicial  blindness  which,  at 
present,  rests  upon  her.  The  same  is  also  true  of 
the  millennial  predictions  of  the  Psalms,  and  of  all 
millennial  predictions  whatever. 

We  now  invite  the  attention  of  our  readers  to  a 
few 


SCRIPTURAL  TESTIMONIES 


with  brief  comments  thereon,  relating  to  the  termi- 
nation of  the  sentence  of  Israel's  judicial  blindness; 
to  the  post-judicial  and  pre-millennial  advent  of  the 
Messiah  of  Israel  for  the  deliverance  of  His  people 
and  the  destruction  of  their  foes ;  and  to  some  of 
the  incidents  and  scenes  concurrent  therewith,  and 
consequent  thereupon,  as  the  millennial  years  roll  on. 

These  testimonies,  left  to  their  own  simple  utter- 
ance and  self-interpreting  and  unaided  light,  will  be 
found,  as  we  believe,  to  establish,  with  Scriptural 
certainty,  in  perfect  harmony  with  all  prophetic 
analogy,  and  without  affording  the  least  support  or 
encouragement  to  any  vague  and  contravening  spir- 
itualistic h}Tpothesis,  the  following  plain  inferences 
of  fact  and  literal  and  incontrovertible  conclusions. 

It  should,  however,  be  remembered,  first  and 
always,  in  considering  these  conclusions,  that  all 
prophecy,  descending  from  the  same  heavenly 
source,  seeks  the  untroubled  waters  of  the  same 
immeasurable  sea ;  that  prophecy,  viewing  it  from 
its  highest  Scriptural  point  of  view,  is  to  be  regarded 
as  a  broad  and  might}^  stream,  pressing  ever  forward 
with  spreading  banks  and  swelling  volume,  till  lost 
in  the  great  deep  of  God's  fulfilled  purposes  concern- 
ing Israel  and  Jerusalem  ;  the  one  great  supreme 
event  and  crowning  glory  of  that  blessed  consum- 
mation ever  being  the  personal  return  to  the  earih 
of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  not,  however,  as  the 
jealous  Deliverer  and  recognized  Messiah  of  His  Own 
people   only,  but  as  the   victorious  and  everlasting 


12  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

sovereign  of  a  recovered  earth,  the  blessed  and  only 
Mediator  and  Redeemer  of  lost  mankind ;  Israel 
being"  the  chosen  instrument  and  example,  through 
which  alone,  in  the  merciful  counsels  of  Omnipotence, 
the  millennial  and  heavenly  goals  will  at  last  be  won 
by  the  spared  inhabitants  of  the  earth. 

In  presenting  these  testimonies  to  our  readers,  we 
shall  cite,  in  the  first  place,  certain  prophecies  which 
look  forward  to  the  consummation  of  the  present  dis- 
pensation ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  certain  other 
prophecies  which  are  descriptive  of  its  actual  inci- 
dents and  scenes,  as  well  as  of  some  of  the  earthly 
and  millennial  scenes  which  lie  beyond. 

The  facts  and  conclusions  referred  to  are  as 
follows: — 

1.  The  joint  occurrence  of  the  three  events  to 
which  we  have  referred  ;  namely,  the  personal  return 
of  the  Messiah  of  Israel  to  the  earth  ;  the  simultane- 
ous deliverance  of  Israel  from  Gentile  oppression ; 
and  the  fulfilment  of  the  times  of  the  Gentiles,  or 
everlasting  overthrow  of  Gentile  supremacy  in  the 
earth. 

2.  The  continuance  of  Israel  in  her  present  down- 
trodden condition — that  is,  under  her  present  judi- 
cial condemnation,  or  sentence  of  judicial  blindness — 
until  the  consummation  of  these  three  events. 

3.  The  total  absence  of  any  allusion  in  these  pro- 
phecies to  a  general  and  final  judgment  of  mankind, 
as  occurring  in  connection  with  these  events ;  and 
of  any  allusion  to  the  heavenly  or  eternal  state  as 
immediately  supervening  thereupon. 

4.  The  fact  that  they  contain,  on  the  other  hand,  a 
full  and  minute  description  of  an  earthly  condition 
or  order  of  things,  thereaftenvards  ensuing,  in  respect 
both  to  the  moral  and  spiritual,  the  domestic,  social  and 
national  interests,  concerns  and  affairs  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  and  of  mankind  at  large;  which  can  belong 
only  to  another  and  purely  earthly  dispensation  or 
economy ;  which  belongs  not  to  the  heavenly  or 
eternal  state,  and  must  therefore  precede  it :  a  con- 


ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  73 

dilion  or  order  of  things,  which  answers  folly,  and 
precisely,  and  at  all  points,  to  the  terms  of  God's 
ancient  covenants  and  promises  concerning  Israel 
and  Jerusalem,  and  to  the  millennial  visions  of  Isaiah 
and  other  prophets  ;  and  which  cannot  co-exist  with 
Israel's  unfulfilled  sentence  of  judicial  blindness. 

The  prophetic  testimony  upon  these  points  we  now 
present  to  our  readers;  citing,  as  said  before,  in  the 
first  place,  certain  prophecies  which  look  forward,  in 
more  general  terms,  to  the  close  of  the  present  dis- 
pensation ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  other  prophecies 
which  are  descriptive  of  its  actual  incidents  and 
scenes. 

Moses: — 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  all  these  things  are 
come  upon  thee,  the  blessing  and  the  curse,  which  I  have 
set  before  thee,  and  thou  shalt  call  them  to  mind  among  all 
the  nations,  whither  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  driven  thee,  and 
shalt  return  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  shalt  obey  his  voice 
according  to  all  that  I  command  thee  this  day,  thou  and  thy 
children,  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul;  that  then 
the  Lord  thy  God  will  turn  thy  captivity,  and  have  compas- 
sion upon  thee,  and  will  return  and  gather  thee  from  all  the 
nations,  whither  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  scattered  thee.  And 
the  Lord  thy  God  will  bring  thee  into  the  land  which  thy 
fathers  possessed,  and  thou  shalt  possess  it;  and  he  will  do 
thee  good  and  multiply  thee  above  thy  fathers  And  the 
Lord  thy  God  will  circumcise  thine  heart,  and  the  heart  of 
thy  seed,  to  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  that  thou  may  est  live.  And  the  Lord  thy 
God  will  put  all  these  curses  upon  thine  enemies,  and  on 
them  that  hate  thee,  which  persecuted  thee.  And  thou  shalt 
return  and  obey  the  voice  of  the  Lord,  and  do  all  his  com- 
mandments, which  I  command  thee  this  day.  And  the  Lord 
thy  God  will  make  thee  plenteous  in  every  work  of  thine 
hand,  in  the  fruit  of  thy  body  and  in  the  fruit  of  thy  cattle, 
and  in  the  fruit  of. thy  land,  for  good;  for  the  Lord  will  again 
rejoice  over  thee  for  good,  as  he  rejoiced  over  thy  fathers." 
Deut.  xxx,  1-10. 

The  period  here  referred  to  is  most  clearty,  by  the 
terms  of  the  prediction,  subsequent  to  the  present 
dispersion  of  Israel  among  the  Gentiles,  and  must, 
therefore,  be  still  future. 


Y4  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  thou  shalt  hearken  dili- 
gently unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  Cod,  to  observe  and 
do  all  the  commandments  which  I  command  thee  this  day, 
that  the  Lord  thy  God  will  set  thee  on  high  above  all  nations 
of  the  earth."     Deut.  xxviii,  1. 

"If  they  shall  confess  their  iniquity,  and  the  iniquity  of 
their  fathers,  with  their  trespasses  which  they  trespassed 
against  me,  and  also  that  they  have  walked  contrary  unto 
me.  and  that  I  also  have  walked  contrary  unto  them, 
and  have  brought  them  into  the  land  of  their  enemies; 
if  then  their  uncircumcised  hearts  be  humbled,  and  they  then 
accept  of  the  punishment  of  their  iniquity;  then  will  I  remem- 
ber my  covenant  with  Jacob,  and  also  my  covenant  with 
Isaac,  and  also  my  covenant  with  Abraham  will  I  remember, 
and  I  will  remember  the  land."     Levit.  xxvi,  40-42. 

God  has  never  yet  fulfilled  these  covenants  with 
Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  in  any  full  and  just 
sense.  These  covenants  are  everlasting  covenants  ; 
everlasting,  when  once  fulfilled,  in  their  continuance 
and  their  enjoyment,  and  wholly  preclude  the  idea  of 
subsequent  apostasy  or  falling  away ;  and  Israel  is 
now  suffering  utter  desolation,  both  as  a  nation  and 
as  a  land,  in  consequence  of  her  disobedience  and 
apostasies,  in  fulfilment  of  the  sentence  of  her  judi- 
cial blindness,  and  will  continue  to  suffer  utter  deso- 
lation u  until  all  shall  be  fulfilled,"  and  she  shall  sa}', 
"  Blessed  is  he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord." 

That  the  covenants  of  blessing  to  Israel,  one  and 
all,  when  once  actually  realized  and  fulfilled,  will  be 
realized  and  fulfilled  for  all  coming  time,  and  will 
never  suffer  any  abe3'ance  or  abatement  in  their  full 
and  glorious  fruition  to  the  end  of  time,  is  as  clearly 
revealed  as  that  they  will  not,  and  cannot  be  realized 
and  fulfilled,  or  begin  to  be  realized  and  fulfilled, 
until  the  no  less  irrevocable  covenant  of  Israel's  ju- 
dicial blindness  shall  expire,  at  the  close  of  her  pre- 
sent judicial  dispensation.  The  prophetic  evidence 
to  this  effect  is  simply  overwhelming.  Our  limits 
will  admit  only  of  the  briefest  reference  to  it. 

"And  I  will  bring  again  the  captivity  of  my  people  of 


ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  75 

Israel,  and  tboy  shall  build  the  waste  pities,  and  inhabit 
them,  and  they  shall  plant  vineyards,  and  drink  the  wine 
thereof;  they  shall  also  make  gardens,  and  eat  the  fruit  of 
them.  And  I  will  plant  them  upon  their  land,  and  they 
shall  no  more  be  pulled  out  of  their  land  which  I  have  given 
them,  saith  the  Lord  thy  God."     Amos  ix,  14,  15. 

When,  ever  since  this  prophecy  was  uttered,  have 
not  the  children  of  Israel,  with  rare  intervals  of  pos- 
session, been  pulled  out  of  their  land  ?  AY  hen 
were  they  ever  more  pulled  out  of  it,  more  scattered 
up  and  down  the  whole  face  of  the  earth,  than  they 
are  now?  AYhen  will  they  cease  to  be  pulled  out  of 
it,  so  long  as  their  sentence  of  judicial  blindness  re- 
mains unfulfilled? 

"And  T  will  make  a  covenant  of  peace,  and  will  cause 
the  evil  beasts  to  cease  out  of  the  land;  and  they  shall  dwell 
safely  in  the  wilderness,  and  sleep  in  the  woods.  And  I  will 
make  them  and  the  places  round  about  my  hill  a  blessing; 
and  I  will  cause  the  shower  to  come  down  in  his  season; 
there  shall  be  showers  of  blessing.  And  the  tree  of  the 
field  shall  yield  her  fruit,  and  the  earth  shall  yield  her  in- 
crease, and  they  shall  be  safe  in  their  land,  and  shall  know 
that  I  am  the  Lord,  when  I  have  broken  the  bands  of  their 
yoke,  and  delivered  them  out  of  the  hand  of  those  that  served 
themselves  of  them.  And  they  shall  no  more  be  a  prey  to 
the  heathen,  neither  shall  the  beast  of  the  land  devour  them; 
but  they  shall  dwell  safely,  and  none  shall  make  them  afraid. 
And  I  will  raise  up  for  them  a  plant  of  renown,  and  they 
shall  no  more  be  consumed  with  hunger  in  the  land,  neither 
bear  the  shame  of  the  heathen  any  more.  Then  shall  they 
know  that  I  the  Lord  their  God  am  with  them,  and  that  they, 
even  the  house  of  Israel,  are  my  people,  saith  the  Lord 
God."     Ezekiel  xxxiv,  25-30. 

"Yea,  I  will  rejoice  over  them  to  do  them  good,  and  I 
will  plant  them  in  this  land  assuredly  with  my  whole  heart 
and  with  my  whole  soul.  For  thus  saith  the  Lord;  Like  as 
I  have  brought  all  this  great  evil  upon  this  people,  so  will  I 
bring  upon  them  all  the  good  that  I  have  promised  them." 
Jer.  xxxii,  41.  42. 

"Thy  people  also  shall  all  be  righteous:  they  shall  inherit 
the  land  forever,  the  branch  of  my  planting,  the  work  of  my 
hands,  that  I  may  be  glorifijd."  Is.     ix,  21. 


?6  ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS. 

"  Behold  !  a  king  shall  reign  in  righteousness,  and  princes 
shall  rule  in  judgment,  and  the  work  of  righteousness  shall 
be  peace  ;  and  the  effect  of  righteousness,  quietness  and  as- 
surance forever:  and  my  people  shall  dwell  in  a  peaceable 
habitation,  and  in  sure  dwellings,  and  in  quiet  resting- 
places."     Isaiah,  xxxii.,   1,  17,  18. 

"Egypt  shall  be  a  desolation,  and  Edom  shall  be  a  deso- 
late wilderness.  But  Jit d ah  shall  dwell  forever,  and  Jeru- 
salem from  generation  to  generation.     Joel  iii,  21. 

"For  the  nation  and  kingdom  that  will  not  serve  thee  shall 
perish;  yea,  those  nations  shall  be  utterly  wasted.  The 
glory  of  Lebanon  shall  come  unto  thee,  the  fir  tree,  the  pine 
tree,  and  the  box  together,  to  beautify  the  place  of  my  sanc- 
tuary; and  I  will  make  the  place  of  my  feet  glorious. 

"  The  sons  also  of  them  that  afflicted  thee  shall  come  bend- 
ing unto  thee;  and  all  they  that  despised  thee  shall  bow  them- 
selves down  at  the  soles  of  thy  feet;  and  they  shall  call  thee 
The  city  of  the  Lord,  the  Zion  of  the  Holy  One  of  Israel. 
And  the  name  of  the  city,  from  that  day,  shall  be,  The  Lord 
is  there.'''     Is.  lx,  12-14.     Ez.  xlviii,  35. 

"  Whereas  thou  hast  been  forsaken  and  hated,  so  that  no 
man  went  through  thee,  I  will  make  thee  an  eternal  excel- 
lency, a  joy  of  many  generations. 

"Thou  shalt  also  suck  the  milk  of  the  Gentiles,  and  shalt 
suck  the  breast  of  kings;  and  thou  shalt  know  that  I  the 
Lord  am  thy  Saviour  and  thy  Redeemer,  the  Mighty  One  of 
Jacob."     Is.  lx,  14-16. 

"For  Zion's  sake  will  I  not  hold  my  peace,  and  for  Jeru- 
salem's sake  I  will  not  rest,  until  the  righteousness  thereof 
go  forth  as  brightness,  and  the  salvation  thereof  as  a  lamp 
that  burnetii.  And  the  Gentiles  shall  see  thy  righteousness, 
and  all  kings  thy  glory,  and  thou  shalt  be  called  by  a  new 
name,  which  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  shall  name.  Thou  shalt 
also  be  a  crown  of  glory  in  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  and  a  royal 
diadem  in  the  hand  of  thy  God.  Thou  shalt  no  more  be 
termed  Forsaken;  neither  shalt  thy  land  any  more  be  termed 
Desolate:  but  thou  shalt  be  called  Hephzibah,  and  thy  land 
Beulah,  and  thy  land  shall  be  married.  For  as  a  young  man 
marrieth  a  virgin,  so  shall  thy  sons  marry  thee:  and  as  the 
bridegroom  rejoiceth  over  the  bride,  so  shall  thy  God  rejoice 
over  thee.  The  Lord  hath  sworn  by  his  right  hand,  and  by 
the  arm  of  his  strength.  Surely  I  will  no  more  give  thy 
corn  to  be  meat  fur  thine  enemies;  and  the  sons  of  the 
stranger  shall  not  drink  thy  wine,  for  the  which  thou  hast 
labored;  but  they  that  have  gathered  it  shall  eat  it,  and 
praise  the  Lord;  and  they  that  have  brought  it  together  shall 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  77 

drink  it  in  the  courts  of  thy  holiness.  And  they  shall  call 
them,  The  holy  people,  The  redeemed  of  the  Lord:  and  thou 
shalt  be  called,  Sought  out,  A  city  not  forsaken."  Is.  lxii, 
1-5,  8,  9,  12. 

Is  it  not  the  barest  contradiction  of  terms,  the 
purest  solecism,  a  simply  impossible  supposition, 
the  possible  realization  of  these  prophecies  so  long 
as  the  curse  of  Israel's  judicial  blindness,  that  most 
desolating  of  all  the  covenants  of  the  divine  wrath, 
remains  unfulfilled?  and  unfulfilled  we  have  seen  that 
it  will  remain  throughout  the  whole  term  of  the 
present  Gentile,  or  Gospel,  dispensation,  or,  which  is 
the  same  thing,  until  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  are 
fulfilled ;  which  is  but  a  description,  in  other  terms, 
of  the  limitation  of  Israel's  judicial  dispensation. 

Isaiah  : —  (Seven    hundred    and    fifty  years    after 
Moses.) 

"The  Lord  will  have  mercy  upon  Jacob,  and  will  yet 
choose  Israel,  and  set  them  in  their  own  land,  and  the  stran- 
gers shall  be  joined  with  them,  and  they  shall  cleave  to  the 
house  of  Jacob.  And  the  peoples  [the  Gentile  nations]  shall 
take  them  and  bring  them  to  their  place;  and  the  house  of 
Israel  shall  possess  them  in  the  land  of  the  Lord,  for  servants 
and  handmaids;  and  they  shall  rule  over  their  oppressors. 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  shall  give 
thee  rest  from  thy  sorrow,  and  thy  fear,  and  from  the  hard 
bondage  wherein  thou  wast  made  to  serve,  that  thou  shalt 
take  up  this  parable  against  the  King  of  Babylon,  and  say, 
How  hath  the  oppressed  ceased!  the  golden  city  ceased! 
Is.  xiv,  1-4. 

It  is  equally  clear  that  the  allusion  contained  in 
this  prophecy,  which  was  uttered  between  two  hun- 
dred and  three  hundred  years  after  the  reigns  of 
David  and  Solomon,  is  to  a  period  still  in  the  future, 
for  when,  since  it  was  uttered,  has  Israel  been  carried 
back  to  her  place  by  the  Gentile  nations  ?  When 
have  Israel  and  Jacob  made  them  captives  whose  cap- 
tives they  were,  and  possessed  them  for  servants  and 
handmaids  in  their  own  land  '! 


78  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

When  have  they  had  rest  from  their  sorrow,  and 
their  fear,  and  the  hard  bondage  wherein  they  have 
been  made  to  serve?  When  has  the  oppressor  ceased  ? 
Was  it  after  they  were  restored  from  their  Babylo- 
nian captivity  by  Cyrus?  But  a  remnant  only  of  the 
two  tribes  of  Judah  and  Benjamin — according  to  Jo- 
sophus,  forty-three  thousand  five  hundred  in  number 
— were  restored  by  Cyrus,  and,  instead  of  ruling  over 
him,  they  were  ruled  over  by  him,  while  the  ten  lost 
tribes  had  been  carried  away,  two  hundred  years  be- 
fore, into  a  captivity,  from  which  the}'  have  never 
to  this  day  returned,  and  in  which  no  satisfactory 
trace  of  them  has  ever  yet  been  discovered.  In  a 
word,  when  has  this  prophecy  of  Isaiah  been  fulfilled 
in  the  past  ?.  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  when  have 
the  covenants  of  God  concerning  the  nation  and  land 
of  Israel,  as  expressed  in  this  prophecy,  ever  been 
fulfilled,  and  the  curse  of  judicial  blindness  conse- 
quently removed  ?  ' 

Jeremiah: — (One  hundred    and  thirty  years   after 
Isaiah.) 

"  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  again  there  shall  be  heard  in  this 
place,  which  ye  say  shall  be  desolate  without  mart  [the  very 
words  of  the  sentence  of  judicial  blindness],  aud  without 
inhabitants,  and  without  beast,  the  voice  of  joy,  and  the 
voice  of  gladness,  the  voice  of  the  bridegroom,  and  the  voice 
of  the  bride,  the  voice  of  them  that  shall  say,  Praise  the 
Lord  ot  hosts;  for  he  is  good;  for  his  mercy  endureth  forever; 
and  of  them  that  shall  bring  the  sacrifice  of  praise  unto  the 
house  of  the  Lord;  for  I  will  cause  to  return  the  captivity  of 
the  land  as  at  the  first. 

"Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  again  in  this  place,  which 
is  desolate  without  man  and  without  beast,  and  in  all  the 
cities  thereof,  shall  be  an  habitation  of  shepherds  causing 
their  flocks  to  lie  down.  In  the  cities  of  the  mountain,  in 
the  cities  of  the  vale,  and  in  the  cities  of  the  south,  and  in 
the  land  of  Benjamin,  and  in  the  places  about  Jerusalem, 
and  in  the  cities  of  Judah,  shall  the  flocks  pass  again  under 
the  hands  of  him  that  telleth  them,  saith  the  Lord."  Jer. 
xxxiii,  10-14. 

Is  it  Israel   under  the  present  dispensation,  under 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  79 

the  curse  of  judicial  blindness,  or  is  it  Israel  under 
another  dispensation,  when  the  curse  of  judicial 
blindness  shall  be  lifted  and  removed,  and  when  the 
covenants  shall  be  fulfilled,  that  is  described  in  the 
above  prediction  ? 

"In  those  days,  and  at  that  time,  will  I  cause  the  branch 
of  righteousness  to  grow  up  unto  David  ;  and  he  shall  exe- 
cute judgment  and  righteousness  in  the  land.  In  those 
days  shall  Judah  be  saved,  and  Jerusalem  shall  dwell  safely, 
and  this  is  the  name  wherewith  she  shall  be  called,  the  Lord 

our  righteousness If  my  covenant  be  not  with  the  day 

and  night,  and  if  I  have  not  appointed  the  ordinances  of 
heaven  and  earth  ;  then  will  I  cast  away  the  seed  of  Jacob, 
and  I>avid  my  servant,  so  that  I  will  not  take  any  of  his 
seed  to  be  rulers  over  the  seed  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and 
Jacob,  for  I  will  cause  their  captivity  to  return,  and  have 
mercy  on  them."  Jer.  xxxiii,  15,  16,  25,  26. 

Does  not  this  prediction  as  plainly  and  literally 
foretell  the  future  temporal  and  personal  reign  of  the 
Messiah  of  Israel,  in  millennial  gloiy,  upon  the 
throne  of  his  father  David,  as  it  describes  the  revo- 
lutions of  day  and  night,  to  the  certain  and  daily 
fulfil  men  t  of  His  covenants  with  which  God  here  com- 
pares the  certain  fulfilment  of  His  covenant  with 
David,  concerning  the  Messiah's  personal  assumption 
of  his  vacant  throne  ?  and  is  not  this  prediction  de- 
scriptive of  a  dispensation,  or  order  of  things,  which 
can  only  ensue  after  the  sentence  of  Israel's  judicial 
blindness  has  been  removed,  and  the  times  of  the 
Gentiles  are  fulfilled  ?  Can  Jerusalem  ever  dwell 
safely  while  she  is  "trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles  ?" 

"Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will  make 
a  new  covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel,  and  with  the  house 
of  Judah  ;  not  according  to  the  covenant  that  I  made  with 
their  fathers  in  the  day  that  I  took  them  by  the  hand  to  bring 
them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt ;  which  my  covenant  they 
brake,  although  I  was  an  husband  unto  them,  saith  the 
Lord.  But  this  shall  be  the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with 
the  house  of  Israel  ;  After  those  days,  saith  the  Lord,  I  will 
put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts,  and  write  it  in  their  hearts, 
and  will  be  their  God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people.     And 


80  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

they  shall  teach  no  more  every  man  his  neighbor,  and  every 
man  his  brother,  saying,  Know  the  Lord  ;  tor  they  shall  all 
know  me,  from  the  least  of  them  unto  the  greatest  of  them: 
for  1  will  forgive  their  iniquity,  and  I  will  remember  their  sin 
no  more."  Jer.  xxxi,  31-35. 

The  full,  manifested  glory  of  the  new  and  everlast- 
ing covenant  of  grace,  described  in  the  above  predic- 
tion, refers  plainly  enough  to  a  continuing  earthly 
era  or  dispensation,  after  the  sentence  of  IsraeVs 
judicial  blindness  shall  have  ceased:  that  is,  after 
the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  fulfilled.  The  same 
is  no  less  true  of  the  following  description  of  the  final 
realization  and  triumph  of  the  all-embracing  Abra- 
hamic  covenant,  which  refers  so  expressly  to  Israel's 
final  cure. 

"Behold,  I  will  bring  it  [Israel]  health  and  cure,  and  will 
reveal  unto  them  the  abundance  of  peace  and  truth,  and  1 
will  cause  the  captivity  of  Israel  and  the  captivity  of  Judah 
to  return,  and  will  build  them  as  at  the  first.  And  it  [Jeru- 
salem] shall  be  to  me  a  name  of  joy,  a  praise  and  an  honor 
before  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  which  shall  hear  all  the 
good  that  I  do  unto  them;  and  they  shall  fear  and  tremble 
for  all  the  goodness  and  all  the  prosperity  that  I  procure 
unto  it."     Jer.  xxxiii,  6-10. 

We  might  multiply  indefinitely  predictions  to  the 
same  effect  from  Isaiah  down  to  the  close  of  the  Old 
Testament  dispensation,  all  pointing  to  a  period  of 
time  when  Israel's  judicial  blindness  shall  end,  and 
when,  consequently,  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be 
fulfilled. 

We  come  now  to  the  closing  scenes  of  Israel's 
judicial  dispensation,  and  the  simultaneous  judicial 
close  of  the  probationary  dispensation  of  the  Gentile 
nations. 

Joel: — (Sixty  years    after   Isaiah,   and   thirty-one 
after  the  extinction  of  the  kingdom  of  Israel.) 

"For,  behold,  in  those  days,  and  in  that  time,  when  I 
shall  bring  again  the  captivity  of  Judah  and  Jerusalem 
[never  as  yet].  I  will  also  gather  all  nations,  and  will  bring 
them  down  into  the  valley  of  Jehoshaphat,  and  will  plead 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  81 

with  them  there  for  my  people  and  for  my  heritage  Israel, 
whom  they  have  scattered  among'  the  nations  and  parted  my 
land Proclaim  ye  this  among  the  Gentiles;  Pre- 
pare war,  wake  up  the  mighty  men,  let  all  the  men  of  war 
draw  near;  let  them  come  up:  beat  your  ploughshares  into 
swords,  and  your  pruninghooks  into  spears:  let  the  weak  say 
I  am  strong.  Assemble  yourselves,  and  come,  all  ye  hea- 
then, and  gather  yourselves  together  round  about:  thither 
cause  thy  mighty  ones  to  come  down,  O  Lord.  Let  the 
heathen  be  wakened,  and  come  up  to  the  valley  of  Jehosha- 
phat:  for  there  will  I  set  to  judge  all  the  heathen  round 
about.  Put  ye  in  the  sickle,  for  the  harvest  is  ripe:  come, 
get  you  down;  for  the  press  is  full,  the  vats  overflow;  for 
their  wickedness  is  great.  Multitudes,  multitudes  in  the 
valley  of  decision;  for  the  day  of  the  Lord  is  near  in  the 
valley  of  decision.  The  sun  and  the  moon  shall  be  darkened, 
and  the  stars  shall  withdraw  their  shining.  The  Lord  also 
shall  roar  out  of  Zion,  and  utter  his  voice  from  Jerusalem; 
and  the  heavens  and  the  earth  shall  shake;  but  the  Lord  will 
be  the  hope  of  his  people,  and  the  strength  of  the  children 
of  Israel.  So  shall  ye  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  your  God 
dwelling  in  Zion,  my  holy  mountain:  then  shall  Jerusalem  be 
holy,  and  there  shall  no  stranger  pass  through  her  any  more. 
Egypt  shall  be  a  desolation,  and  Edom  shall  be  a  desolate 
wilderness,  for  the  violence  against  the  children  of  Judah, 
because  they  have  shed  innocent  blood  in  their  land.  But 
Judah  shall  dwell  forever,  and  Jerusalem  from  generation  to 
generation.  For  I  will  cleanse  their  blood  that  I  have  not 
cleansed:  for  the  Lord  dwelleth  in  Zion."  Joel  iii,  1,  2, 
9-21. 

Although  the  weight  of  evidence  appears  to  us  to 
refer  these  predictions  very  decisively  to  the  scenes 
connected  with  Israel's  final  deliverance  from  her 
Gentile  oppression,  yet,  in  deference  to  the  opinions 
of  those  expositors,  who,  on  account  of  the  allusions 
contained  in  this  chapter  of  Joel  to  nations  then 
dwelling  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Jews,  are  dis- 
posed to  refer  them  to  events  then  nearer  at  hand,  we 
would  request  our  readers,  at  their  pleasure,  to  pass 
them  by,  as  affording,  if  our  view  be  correct,  cumula- 
tive evidence  only  in  respect  to  the  circumstances  o 
Israel's  final  deliverance.  Xo  doubt,  however,  it 
expressed  by  the  expositors  that  the  prophecies  we 


82  ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS. 

shall  next  quote  from  the  prophet  Zechariah  clearly 

refer  to  the  circumstances  of  Israel's  final  deliverance 

from  Gentile  oppression,  and  to  the  events  which  will 

follow. 

Zechariah  : — (Thirty  years  after  Isaiah.) 

"The  harden  of  the  word  of  the  Lord  for  Israel,  saith 
the  Lord,  which  stretcheth  forth  the  heavens,  and  layeth  the 
foundations  of  the  earth,  and  forroeth  the  spirit  of  man 
within  him. 

"Behold,  I  will  make  Jerusalem  a  cup  of  trembling  unto 
all  the  people  round  about,  when  they  shall  be  in  the  siege 
both  against  Judab,  and  against  Jerusalem. 

In  that  day  will  I  make  Jerusalem  a  burdensome  stone  for 
all  people:  all  that  burden  themselves  with  it  shall  be  cut  in 
pieces,  though  all  the  people  of  the  earth  be  gathered  to- 
gether against  it. 

In  that  day,  saith  the  Lord,  I  will  smite  every  horse  with 
astonishment,  and  his  rider  with  madness:  and  I  will  open 
mine  eyes  upon  the  house  of  Judah,  and  will  smite  every 
horse  of  the  people  [of  tbe  besieging  nations]  with  blindness. 
And  the  governors  of  Judah  shall  say  in  their  hearts,  The 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  shall  be  my  strength  in  the  Lord  of 
hosts  their  God. 

"In  that  day  will  I  make  the  governors  of  Judah  like  a 
hearth  of  fire  among  the  wood,  and  like  a  torch  of  fire  in  a 
sheaf;  and  they  shall  devour  all  the  people  round  about,  on 
the  right  hand,  and  on  the  left;  and  Jerusalem  shall  be  in- 
habited again  in  her  own  place,  even  in  Jerusalem. 

"  In  that  day  shall  the  Lord  defend  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem:  and^  he  that  is  feeble  among  them  at  that  day 
shall  be  as  David;  and  the  house  of  David  shall  be  a  God, 
as  the  angel  of  the  Lord  before  them,  and  it  shall  come  to 
pass 

In  that  day  that  I  will  seek  to  destroy  all  the  nations 
that  come  against  Jerusalem. 

And  I  w ill  pour  upon  the  house  of  David,  and  upon  the 
inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  the  spirit  of  .grace  and  of  sup- 
plications: and  they  shall  look  upon  me  whom  they  have 
pierced,  and  they  shall  mourn  for  him,  as  one  mourneth 
for  his  only  son,  and  shall  be  in  bitterness  for  him,  as  one 
is  in  bitterness  for  his  first-born.    Zech.  xii,  1-10. 

[This  passage,  last  cited,  establishes  the  great 
central  event  in  the  threefold  group,  before  referred 
to,  beyond  all  Scriptural  question.] 


ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  83 

••  In  that  day  shall  there  be  a  great  mourning  in  Jerusa- 
lem, as  the  mourning  of  Hadadrimmon  in  the  valley  of 
Megiddon.  And  the  land  shall  mourn  every  family  apart; 
the  family  of  the  house  of  David  apart,  and  their  wives 
apart;  and  the  family  of  the  house  of  Nathan  apart,  and 
their  wives  apart;  the  family  of  the  house  of  Levi  apart, 
and  their  wives  apart  ;  the  family  of  Shimei  apart,  and 
their  wives  apart;  all  the  families  that  remain,  every  family 
apart,  and  their  wives  apart."     Zech.  xii,  11-14. 

The  description  of  the  Day  of  the  Lord  continues; 
but  here  we  cannot  but  pause  to  notice  the  perfect  coin- 
cidence of  the  testimony  of  our  Saviour,  and  that  of  the 
angels  who  appeared  to  His  sorrowing  disciples  upon 
His  ascension,  and  that  also  of  the  apostle  John  in 
the  Revelation,  with  the  above  testimony  of  Zechariah 
concerning  the  day  of  the  second  coming  of  Israel's 
Messiah. 
Christ: — (seven     hundred    and     fifty    years     after 

Isaiah.) 

"Immediately  after  the  tribulation  of  those  days,  shall 
the  sun  be  darkened,  and  the  moon  shall  not  give  her  light, 
and  the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven,  and  the  powers  of  the 
heavens  shall  be  shaken:  and  then  shall  appear  the  sign 
of  the  So?i  of  Man  in  heaven:  and  then  shall  all  the 
tribes  of  the  land  mourn  [not  the  tribes  of  the  earth  in  a 
universal  sense,  but  the  tribes  of  the  land,  of  Palestine,  of 
Israel,  as  see  Robinson.  Bengel,  Tregelles,  etc.]  and  they 
shall  see  the  Son  of  Alan  coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven 
with  power  and  great  glory."     Matt,  xxiv,  29,  30. 

"And  they  [Israel]  shall  fall  by  the  edge  of  the  sword, 
and  shall  be  led  away  captive  into  all  nations  ;  and  Jerusa- 
lem shall  be  trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles  until  the  times  of 
the  Gentiles  shall  be  fulfilled. 

"And  there  shall  be  signs  in  the  sun,  and  in  the  moon, 
and  in  the  stars  ;  and  upon  the  earth  distress  of  nations, 
with  perplexity  [not  penitential  mourning  ;  that  is  confined 
t»>  Israel]  ;  the  sea  and  the  waves  roanng ;  men's  hearts 
failing  them  for  fear,  and  for  looking  after  those  things 
which  are  coming  on  the  earth  :  for  the  powers  of  heaven 
shall  be  shaken,  [Joel  iii,  16.]  and  then  shall  then  see  the 
Son  of  Man  coming  in  a  cloud  with  power  and  great 
glory."  Luke  xxi,  24-27. 

Then  is  Israel's  national  redemption  at  hand. 


84  ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS. 

"And  when  these  thing's  begin  to  come  to  pass,  then  look 
up,  and  lift  up  your  heads  ;  for  your  redemption  draweth 
nigh."  Luke  xxi,  28. 

So  also  John,  (thirty-six  years  after  Christ.) 

"Behold  he  cometh  with  clouds  ;  every  eye  shall  see  him, 
and  those  who  pierced  him  ;  and  all  the  tribes  of  the  land 
shall  wail  at  Him.     Even  so,  Amen."  Kev.  i,  7. 

How  can  it  be  Scripturally  doubted  that  the  reap- 
pearing of  the  Messiah  of  Israel,  and  the  consequent 
mournings  of  the  tribes  of  Israel,  as  thus  described, 
are  the  same  described  by  Zechariah  ? 

So  also  the  angels  to  the  apostles  as  they  beheld 
the  ascension  of  their  blessed  Master  : — 

"Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why  stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven? 
this  same  Jesus  which  is  taken  up  from  you  into  heaven, 
shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as  ye  have  seen  him  go  into 
heaven."  Acts  i,  11. 

Let  us  now  return  to  the  description  of  Zechariah. 
We  dropped  it  at  the  second  advent  of  the  Messiah 
to   Israel,   and   at   the   universal   mourning   of  the 
tribes  of  Israel,  when  "  the   Spirit  of  grace  and  of 
supplications  shall  be  poured  upon  them." 

"In  that  day  there  shall  be  a  fountain  opened  to  the  house 
of  David  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  for  sin  and 
for  uncleanness.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day 
that  I  will  cut  off  the  names  of  idols  out  of  the  land,  and 
they  shall  no  more  be  remembered."     Zech.  xiii,  1,  2. 

The  prophet  now  reverts  to  the  complete  overthrow 
of  the  Gentile  nations. 

"Behold,  the  day  of  the  Lord  cometh,  and  thy  spoil 
shall  be  divided  in  the  midst  of  thee.  For  I  will  gather  all 
nations  against  Jerusalem  to  battle:  and  the  city  shall  be 
taken,  and  the  houses  rifled,  and  the  women  ravished;  and 
half  of  the  city  shall  go  forth  into  captivity,  and  the  residue 
of  the  people  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  city. 

"Then  shall  the  Lord  go  forth,  and  tight  against  those 
nations  as  he  fought  in  the  day  of  battle. 


Israel's  judicial  blindness.  85 

"And  his  feet  shall  stand  in  that  day  upon  the  Mount  of 
Olives,  which  is  before  Jerusalem.  And  the  Lord  shall  be 
king  over  all  the  earth,  and  his  name  one;  and  there  shall 
be  no  more  utter  destruction;  but  Jerusalem  shall  be  safely 
inhabited. 

"And  this  shall  be  the  plague  wherewith  the  Lord  shall 
smite  all  the  people  that  have  fought  against  Jerusalem; 
Their  flesh  shall  consume  away  while  they  stand  upon  their 
feet,  and  their  eyes  shall  consume  away  in  their  holes,  and 
their  tongue  shall  consume  away  in  their  mouth.  And  it 
shall  come  to  pass  in  that  day,  that  a  great  tumult  from  the 
Lord  shall  be  among  them;  and  they  shall  lay  hold  every 
one  on  the  hand  of  his  neighbor,  and  his  hand  shal  rise  up 
against  the  hand  of  his  neighbor."     Zech.  xiv,  1-3,  9-13. 

Thus  will  close  the  present  dispensation  or  order 
of  things.  Thus  will  the  Messiah  return,  and  Israel 
be  delivered,  and  her  Gentile  oppressors  be  over- 
thrown. Thus  will  the  sentence  of  judicial  blindness 
expire,  and  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  be  fulfilled. 
They  will  never  again  obtain  ascendency  over  Israel 
in  the  earth,  nor  national  equality  with  her.  They 
will  never  seek  to  obtain  it,  but  will  rejoice  with 
Israel  in  the  fulfilment  of  all  her  ancient  covenants, 
in  the  fulfilment  of  all  the  holy  oaths  with  which  the 
God  of  Israel  hath  ratified  and  bound  them,  and  in 
the  fulfilment  of  the  predicted  blessings  which  will 
flow  to  them  therefrom. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  the  dispensation  of  judicial 
prophecy  ends,  and  the  dispensation  of  millennial  pro- 
phecy, with  its  full  and  glowing  descriptions  of 
earthly  blessedness,  begins.  It  is  at  this  point  that 
the  judicial  predictions  of  the  public  and  unexplained 
parables  of  our  Lord  terminate,  being  all  fulfilled  : 
which  predictions  run  in  a  line  strictly  parallel,  at 
all  points,  with  the  sentence  of  Israel's  judicial  blind- 
ness. Henceforth  and  forever  more,  to  the  end  of 
the  dispensations  which  are  revealed,  will  restored 
and  redeemed  Israel  be  exalted  to  the  foremost  place 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  dwell  safel}*  on 
the  high  places  of  Jacob,  among  her  vines  and  fig- 
trees,  her  olives  and  her  palms :  u  and  all  the  nations 


86  ISRAEL'S    JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS. 

shall  call  you  blessed,  for  ye  shall  be  a  delightsome 
land,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts"  (Mai.  iii,  12 ;)  u  and 
their  seed  shall  be  known  among  the  Gentiles,  and 
their  offspring  among  the  people :  all  that  see  them 
shall  acknowledge  them,  that  they  are  the  seed 
which  the  Lord  hath  blessed."     Isa.  lxi,  9. 

Meanwhile,  let  us,  the  nations  of  the  Gentiles,  lift 
not  up  our  horn  on  high  ;  nor  speak  with  a  stitf  neck, 
'*  for  promotion  cometh  neither  from  the  east,  nor 
from  the  west,  nor  from  the  south.  But  God  is  the 
Judge :  he  putteth  down  one,  and  setteth  up  an- 
other."    Ps.  lxxv,  6,  T. 


CONCLUSION. 

The  general  conclusion  which  we  would  seek  to 
impress  upon  the  minds  of  our  readers,  may  be 
briefly  stated  as  follows  : — 

At  the  advent,  and  during  the  ministry  of  our 
Saviour  on  the  earth,  the  nation  of  Israel  was  ucon- 
cluded  in  unbelief;"  was  in  a  state  of  judicial 
blindness,  which  rendered  it  impossible  for  the  na- 
tion to  understand  the  mysteries  of  Christ's  spirit- 
ual kingdom  on  the  earth,  under  the  present  Gospel 
dispensation,  as  revealed  in  His  public  and  unex- 
plained parables. 

On  account  of  their  judicial  blindness,  they  neither 
would,  nor  could,  nor  was  it  intended  that,  as  a 
nation,  they  should,  obtain  a  saving  knowledge  of 
these  mysteries,  until  the  sentence  of  their  judicial 
blindness  should  expire ;  which  sentence,  by  the 
very  terms  in  which  it  wTas  expressed,  is  to  expire 
only  with  the  expiration  of  the  present  Gospel  dis- 
pensation ;  or,  in  other  words,  when  only,  and  not 
before,  uthe  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  shall  come  in," 
or,  which  is  a  strictly  synonymous  expression,  when 
"  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  shall  be  fulfilled." 

Wherefore,  it  follows,  that,  until  the  close  of  the 


ISRAEL'S   JUDICIAL    BLINDNESS.  87 

present  dispensation  of  God's  judicial  wrath  upon 
Israel,  none  of  the  covenants  of  blessing  which  God 
sware  unto  the  fathers  of  Israel,  can,  in  any  proper, 
or  logical,  or  Scriptural,  or  possible  sense,  in  the  very 
nature  of  things,  be  said  to  be  fulfilled  :  without  the 
fulfilment  of  which  covenants  of  blessing,  a  millen- 
nium, or  thousand  years,  of  un mingled  and  measure- 
less blessing  to  Israel,  and  through  Israel,  to  all 
mankind,  is  a  simply  absurd  and  impossible  supposi- 
tion, whether  as  viewed  in  the  light  of  Scripture,  or 
in  the  light  of  reason,  or  in  any  light  whatsoever. 

This  judicial  blindness,  which  we  have  endeav- 
ored in  some  measure  to  explain,  is  the  reason  as- 
signed by  our  Saviour  to  His  disciples  why  He 
spake  to  the  nation  in  parables,  explaining  them  not ; 
which  parables  are  veiled  prophecies  of  the  whole 
course,  progress  and  development  of  the  present  ju- 
dicial dispensation  of  Israel,  in  the  relation  of  the 
Messiah's  spiritual  kingdom  thereto,  as  affecting 
Jews  and  Gentiles  both — from  the  baptism  of  Christ 
in  the  waters  of  the  Jordan,  down  to  that  final  ca- 
tastrophe, when  He  will  appear  again  to  overthrow 
for  ever  Gentile  ascendency  and  oppression  in  the 
earth. 

As  the  judicial  blindness  of  the  nation  was  the 
reason  why  they  could  not  understand  the  veiled 
meaning  of  these  prophetic  parables  at  the  time  of 
our  Saviour's  ministry,  so  also,  and  no  less,  is  it  the 
reason  why  they  have  not  been  able  to  understand 
them  since,  are  not  able  to  understand  them  now, 
and  will  not  be  able  to  understand  them,  so  long  as 
the  appointed  term  of  the  sentence  of  judicial  blind- 
ness still  awaits  its  expiration. 

And  as  we  have  found  that  the  reason  for  the  use 
of  unexplained  parables  to  the  nation  is  thus  pro- 
phetic in  its  character  and  application  ;  so,  as  might 
naturally  and  Scripturally  have  been  expected,  have 
we  also  found  that  these  parables  were  themselves 
prophetic. 


88  Israel's  judicial  blindness. 

And  so  will  they  also  appear  to  Israel,  when,  at 
the  expiration  of  her  sentence  of  judicial  blindness, 
"  the  Spirit  of  grace  and  of  supplications,"  so  long 
resisted  and  blasphemed,  and  grieved  away  and 
quenched,  shall  be  poured  upon  the  house  of  David, 
and  upon  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem.  Then  the 
veil  will  be  lifted  from  their  eyes.  Then  the  veil 
will  be  lifted  from  these  parables ;  which,  each  with 
its  train  of  fulfilled  prophecies,  will  theu  shine  forth 
to  the  unclouded  vision  of  redeemed  Israel  and  a 
redeemed  world,  as  everlasting  monuments  of  the 
covenanted  justice  which  afflicted,  and  the  cove- 
nanted mercy  which  spared  that  people,  who,  what- 
ever their  sins  and  transgressions,  are  the  only  cove- 
nanted hope  of  a  fallen  world. 


BRIEFS    ON    PROPHETIC    THEMES. 

BY  A  MEMBER  OF  THE  BOSTON  BAR. 

SECOND      EDITION,      REVISED     iND      ENLARGED. 

WITH  AN  INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER  ON 

THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  LEAVEN. 

BOSTON:  E.  P.  DUTTON  &  CO.    1866. 
12rno.  pp.168.    Price  $1.00.    Sent  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price. 

"The  views  presented  are  sustained  with  great  fulness  of 
Scriptural  quotation,  and  seem  better  to  harmonize  with  the 
inspired  oracles  than  any  which  have  come  under  my  observa- 
tion. I  have  read  them  with  admiration  of  the  learning,  the 
style  and  the  clearness  ami  strength  of  the  Scriptural  argument. 
I  trust  they  will  be  extensively  circulated,  and  be  eminently 
useful  in  correcting  the  erroneous  notions  of  prophecy  which 
have  so  long  led  expositors  astray."— John  H.  Hopkins,  late 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  Vermont. 

"  This  book  is  without  doubt  one  of  the  ablest  and  worthiest 
and  most  thoiough  and  elegant  discussions  of  the  subjects  of 
which  it  treats  that  has  been  written.  The  author's  exposition 
of  the  Parable  of  the  Leaven  is  perfectly  satisfactory  and  con- 
vincing."— A  Clergyman. 

"  The  introductory  chapter  on  the  Parable  of  the  Leaven  is  a 
very  masterly  specimen  of  exegesis,  the  conclusions  of  which 
are  irresistible." — Christian  Witness  and  Church  Advocate. 

"  It  is  refreshing,  in  these  days  of  daring  speculation,  to  see  a 
mind  of  such  logical  power  and  refined  culture  bowing  so 
meekly  at  the  shrine  of  God's  truth.  The  advantages  of  a  literal 
over  a  spiritualistic  method  of  interpretation  must  be  felt  by 
all  who  read  this  work.  It  invests  the  Bible  with  new  interest, 
especially  the  prophets.  It  divests  us  of  a  thousand  vain  fan- 
cies, and  reduces  us  to  the  plain  realities  of  God's  government 
over  this  world." — Vermont  Chronicle. 

"  The  thousands  who  read  the  incoherent  and  grotesque  com- 
pilations, and  who  are  taken  with  the  painful  rashness,  or,  as 
some  would  sav,  the  amusing  conceit  of  certain  fanciful  inter- 
preters of  prophecy,  will  find  little  to  attract,  and  nothing  to  en- 
tertain them  in  the  calm,  clear,  and  well-considered  paragraphs 
of  the  Boston  barrister.  This  unpretending  volume  we  hail  as 
one  of  the  healthiest  and  most  promising  contributions  to  the 
literature  of  this  subject  that  has  issued  from  the  American 
press.  It  is  eminently  suggestive.  Its  modest  title  well  suits 
not  only  its  dimensions,  but  its  concise  manner,  which  bears 
traces  of  the  author's  professional  culture,  while  the  style  is  ele- 
gant, and  the  tone  spiritual.  We  know  of  no  work  in  which  the 
views  which  it  advocates  are  stated  with  greater  clearness  and 
Scriptural  precision." — Waymarks,  New  York. 

"The  author  is  a  premillennialist,  and  is  one  of  the  most  sen- 
sible and  elegant  writers  on  that  question.  It  is  written  in  a 
style  which  will  secure  for  him  the  respect  of  every  reader  of 
cultivated  taste.  The  views  presented  are  fortified  by  an  array 
of  proof,  which  entitles  them  to  the  consideration  of  every  stu- 
dent of  prophecy." — Evangelical  Repository,  etc.,  Philadelphia. 

E.    P.    DUTTOJY   &    CO., 

135  Washington  Street,  Boston. 


V 


PHOTOMOUNT 
PAMPHLET  BINDER 


PAT.    NO. 
877188 


Manufactured  bu 

GAYLORD  BROS.  Inc. 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Stockton,  Calif. 


DATE  DUE 

Sw  -*w**«J 

W&&J& 

- 

HIGHSMITH 

*  45220 

BS649  J5L87 

Israel's  judicial  blindness,  and  the 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


00055 


